RefinementofSouls Compressed Text

Imam Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari
SECOND EDITION
Translated by
Amjad Mahmood
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THE REFINEMENT OF
THE REFINEMENT OF
SOULS A translation of
tA ds ssl onyallec'
Taj al-’ariis al-hawi li-tahdhib al-nufis
Imam Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari
SECOND EDITION
Translated by
Amjad Mahmood
HERITAGE
PRESS
The Refinement ofSouls: A Translation of Taj al-‘arits
al-hawi li tahdhib al-nufus
Published by: Heritage Press

First Edition Published in: April 2014/Jumada al-Akhir 1435
Second Edition Published in: October 2016/Muharram 1438
This edition revised in: March 2019/Rajab 1440
Website: www.heritagepress.co.uk
E-mail: info@hentagepress.co.uk
Copyright © Amjad Mahmood, March 2019 CE/ Rajab 1440 AH
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without
the prior permission of the publishers.
Author: Imam Tj al-Din Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari

Translation: Amjad Mahmood
A catalogue record of this book is available from the Bnitish Library.
ISBN: 978-0-9934756-2-7
Typeset by: N A Qaddoura

Cover design by: Qutaiba al-Mahawili
Printed in Great Britain by: TJ International LTD, Padstow, Cornwall
CONTENTS
af
TRANSLITERATION KEY VIII
INTRODUCTION IX
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY XI
His name, lineage and life xi
His school of thought xiii
His shaykhs xiii
His most prominent students and disciples Xili
His acclaimed works xiv
His miracles xiv
What scholars have said about him XV
THE REFINEMENT OF SOULS ]

Introductory remarks ]
Repentance to Allah 2
Types of emulation 4
Where will you find goodness? 5
Repentance gains Allah’s love 3 6
Outer and inner effects of acts of disobedience 8
The struggle against the lower self 9
Warning against disobedience to Allah 12
Envy is sheer ignorance 15
Whoever realises the immediacy of his departure
hastens to acquire provisions 16
The reality of faith 18
Who is a real man? 19
TA AL-‘ARUS
The blessing of the gaze from a friend of Allah (wali) 20

Gaining favour with Allah 3 22
The prophets # and Allah’s friends #&
are the greatest means to Him 3€ 22
The triviality of this world (dunya) a
Holding one’s self to account 25
The sweetness of faith 27
A person’s close companions 29
Is there any buyer for our merchandise? 30
Wisdom is the chain of a believer 34
How to cleanse your heart 35
The greatest blessing 36
Part of faith is to witness everything
as coming from Allah % 37
Limited intellects 38
A guide to Allah is rare 39
The heavens and the earth show courtesy
to a friend of Allah (walt) 41
The miracles of the Prophet’s 4 Companions # 46
The beneficial prayer 46
The reasons for entry into Paradise and the Hellfire 48
The deficiency is in you and so is the veil 49
Renewal of faith 50
Whoever is honest with Allah, He will guard
him against harm from his enemies 93
Allah is the king, you are the shepherd
and your limbs are your sheep 56
The manner of keeping company 57
The reality of God-consciousness (taqwa) 60
The necessity of isolating and secluding yourself 61
The person praying is intimately conversing
with Allah and His Messenger # 62
The outer and inner major ritual impurity (jandbah) 65
Insight and wandering about aimlessly 66
vi
Contents
O slave, flee from this creation to the Creator 68

The intelligent person 70
Beware of attachment to other than Allah 72
The pure heart 73
The people of Allah were through Allah,
so Allah was sufficient for them 74
Beneficial knowledge 74
The door to provision is open 78
Relinquishment of planning alongside Allah % 79
An exposition for those who benefit from
admonishment and seek insight 83
The gnostic has neither this world nor the Hereafter 86
This world is in their hands, not in their hearts 88
The hidden voices of realities (hawatz/) 9}
The author’s intimate discourses
(mundjat) with his Lord 95
Vii
TRANSLITERATION KEY
age
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made at the bottom of the palate.)
throat.) (An emphatic ¢ pronounced
behind the front teeth.)
a,a
z (An emphatic ¢h, like the
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front teeth.)
th (Pronounced like the th in
«(A distinctive Semitic
think.)
sound made in the middle
J of the throat, sounding to
AAA hAdam’s
&EO (Hard h sound made at the
apple in the middle
a Western ear more like a
vowel than a consonant.)
of the throat.) gh (A guttural sound made
kh (Pronounced like the ch in at the top of the throat,
‘ar
Scottish /och.) resembling the untrilled
d German and French r)
dh (Pronounced like the ¢h in uo f
this.) G: q (A guttural & sound
r produced at the back of the
z palate.)
5
sh
he s (An emphatic s
pronounced behind the
upper front teeth.) 7
3
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\. d (An emphatic d-like sound Ww, u,
made by pressing the entire CE Jit,t

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viii
INTRODUCTION
mye
[;the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Compassionate.

All praise is due to Allah, and may His blessing and peace be
upon our master Muhammad, his family and Companions.
Allah 3€ says, ‘And by the soul, and the proportion and order
given to it; and its enlightenment as to its wrong and its nght.
Truly, he succeeds who purifies it, and he fails who corrupts it!’
(Qur’an 91:7-10).
This short work is a translation of the widely acclaimed Sufi
treatise 7aj al-‘aris al-hawi li tahdhib al-nufiis [The bride’s crown:
comprising the souls’ refinement], by the great gnostic and scholar
of Egypt, who needs no introduction, Imam Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-
Sakandari . The work, as suggested in its title, addresses the
topic of refinement and purification of the human soul through
repentance from the inner and outer sins, struggling against the
lower self and treating spiritual ailments like conceit, envy and
pride, amongst many others. The exposition is articulated by
means of counsels and admonishments that have been beautifully
expressed in verses of the Qur’an, Prophetic sayings, similitudes
and anecdotes of Sufi saints. Although the treatise was authored
several centuries ago, it is as if the author is addressing the public
in our time, as the same spiritual diseases that existed in his era
are also prevalent, even more so, in ours.
The book is not an abstruse esoteric Sufi work whose benefit
only extends to an elect few, but is rather a practical manual
on purification of the self that serves both Sufi and non-Sufi
aspirants alike, both the beginners and advanced seekers on
ix
TA] AL-‘ARUS
the spiritual path, written by a master who himself was realised

in the higher spiritual realities and whose heart and soul was
illumined. Just as the crown is an adornment for a bride by which
her beauty is enhanced, similarly the refinement of the soul is its
adornment by which its beauty is made manifest.
The following editions were relied on for this translation:
@ Maktabah Ibn al-Qayyim, Damascus, Syria, 1419/1999.

It was edited by Muhammad ‘Ali Muhammad Bahri and
Khalid Khadim al-Sariji, who relied on a manuscript
edition in al-Asad Library and four other editions
prevalent in book markets.
@ Maktabah ‘Ilm al-Hadith, Damascus, Syria, 1420/2000.
This edition was edited by Shaykh Yusuf ibn Mahmid
al-Haj Ahmad and revised by the late Hanafi jurist and
theologian of Damascus Shaykh Adib al-Kallas .
The subject headings found throughout are not from the

original work, but have been included, though occasionally
amended, from two Egyptian editions: Dar Jawami‘ al-Kalim,
Cairo, 1425/2004 and al-Maktabah al-Azhariyyah li al-Turath,
Cairo, 1429/2008.
I would like to thank: Shaykh Mahmid Misri, for providing
clarification on a few passages (which I have included as footnotes
beginning with ‘[SM]’); Andrew Booso, for editing; Muhammad
Ridwaan, for proofreading; Qutaiba al-Mahawili, for the cover
design; and Abdassamad Clarke and Naiem Qaddoura, for
typesetting.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY!
aye
His name, lineage and life
e is Imam T4j al-Din, Abi al-Fadl and Abii al-‘Abbas,

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Karim ibn ‘Abd
al-Rahman ibn ‘Abd-Allah ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Isa ibn al-
Husayn ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Judhami.’ His exact date of birth is
unknown.
The author’s life can be divided into three phases. The first is
his early life in the city of Alexandria in the second half of the
seventh century Hijri. It was during this period that he studied
the Islamic sciences such as fafstr, hadith, figh, and the linguistic
sciences of grammar, morphology and rhetoric under the most
eminent scholars of Alexandria. In this early phase, he was
severely critical against the Sufis.
The second phase of his scholarly journey is defined by his
companionship of the spiritual mentor Abu al-‘Abbas al-Mursi,
under whom he received his Sufi training in the Shadhili Order.
This was after his encounter with the shaykh and subsequently
realising that accompanying the Sufis does not necessarily mean
abandoning the pursuit of seeking knowledge or any other
worldly pursuits as long as Allah’s countenance is sought thereby.
1. The following biographical details have been largely, although not

exclusively, selected from the various relied-upon editions of the author's
works, which have been referenced throughout this work.
2. An ascription to Judham, a well-known Arab tribe from the Hijaz;
his forefathers were from this tribe who had migrated to Egypt and settled in
Alexandria after the Islamic conquest of Egypt.
x1
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
Before meeting his spiritual mentor Shaykh Abu al-‘Abbas

al-Mursi, he had a confrontation with one of Shaykh Mursi’s
students, which he relates in his work Lata’f al-minan, “Regarding
him [Shaykh Mursi], I used to condemn and object, not because
I had heard anything objectionable from him or something that
was authentically reported to me about him, but because of
a dispute that took place between me and one of his students,
and that was before I accompanied him. I said to that man,
“There is nothing but outer knowledge, and these people [Sufis]
claim extraordinary matters which the apparent meanings of
the Sacred Law openly rejects.” The reason for my encounter
with him was that, after the dispute that took place between me
and that man, I said to myself, “Let me go and see this man,
for someone who is truthful has signs that are not hidden.” So
I attended his gathering and found him speaking with words
enjoined by the Shariah that sooth the hearts (anfas); [for
example,] he said, “...the first is Islam, the second isiman [faith],
and the third is zhsén [perfection]; and if you wish, you can say,
‘The first is Shariah [Sacred Law], the second is hagigah [reality],
and the third is tahagguq [realisation].”” He further said, ‘I
realised that this man is drawing from the vastness of the divine
ocean and the lordly succour, so Allah removed from me my
scepticism.”® He thereafter became one of his elite disciples and
closely accompanied him for twelve years, until his lights shone
on him and he received spiritual unveilings at his hands.
The third phase begins after his shaykh, Abii al-‘Abbas al-
Mursi, passes away and he becomes the inheritor of his knowledge
and the propagator of his path. He then leaves Alexandria and
takes up residence in Cairo, where he becomes busy teaching
Islamic law and Sufism, and sermonising in the most prestigious
and greatest Islamic university of the time: al-Azhar. It is in
Cairo that this phase ends with his death in 709 AH. This phase
3. Muhammad ibn ‘Abbad, Sharh al-Hikam al-Ala’tyyah \st edition.

(Damascus: Dar al-Farfar, 1423/2003), 44.
Xil
Author’s Biography
is distinguished by his maturity and proficiency in Islamic law

and Sufi knowledge, and his benefiting others in these two fields
by way of teaching and sermonising.
His school of thought

Imam Taj al-Subki says that he was a Shafiil in Islamic law,
though other scholars are of the opinion that he was a Maliki.
His shaykhs
He studied under the foremost scholars of his time, amongst

them:
@ Shaykh Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Abraguhi, the Musnid

of Egypt;
@ Shaykh Muhyi al-Mariini, under whom the author
studied Arabic grammar. Al-Marini was considered on
a par with the grammarian Ibn al-Nuhhas;
@ al-Hafiz Sharaf al-Din al-Dimyati, who was the shaykh
of the hadith experts (muhaddithin);
@ Shaykh Muhammad ibn Mahmud, commonly known
as Shams al-Din al-Asfahani, who was an Imam
[authority] in logic, theology, principles of jurisprudence
and polemics. It is most likely that the author studied
under him the principles of jurisprudence, theology and
the rational sciences such as philosophy and logic.
His most prominent students and disciples
Many renowned scholars benefited from him, amongst them

were:
@ the shaykh of the Shafi‘ts, Imam Taqi al-Din al-Subki
(father of Taj al-Din al-Subki, the author of Tabagat al-
Shafityyah al-kubra [The greatest compendium of the
xill
TA AL-‘ARUS
Shafi jurists]), who was the most prominent of his

students;
@ Shaykh Dawid ibn ‘Amr, more well known as Ibn Bakh-
ila, who was Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah’s successor in the Shadhili
Order;
@ Shaykh Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali al-Qarafi.
His acclaimed works
The Imam wrote many works, predominantly on Sufism; some

of which are:
@ al-Hikam al-Ata’iyyah [‘Ata’s aphorisms]; it is his most cel-
ebrated and acclaimed work, on which many succeeding
scholars from all schools of thought wrote commentaries
and which is still today taught and memorised in Islamic
institutes in the Muslim world;
@ al-Tanwir fi isqat al-tadbir [Illumination in renouncing
planning];
@ 74a; al-‘arits al-hawi li tahdhib al-nufiis [The bride’s crown:
comprising the souls’ refinement], which is the current
work;
@ Lataif al-minan fi mandqib al-Shaykh Abi al-Hasan wa
tilmidhthi al-Shaykh Abi al-‘Abbds al-Mursi [Subtle blessings
on the virtues of Shaykh Abi al-Hasan [al-Shadhili] and
his disciple Shaykh Abii al-‘Abbas al-Mursi].
His miracles
Kamal ibn al-Humam* visited his grave 4 and began reciting

Sirah al-Hiad, until he reached the verse ‘Of those (gathered) some
4. He was a major Hanafi jurist from Egypt, most famous for his
commentary on the Hanafi classic al-Hidayah, titled Sharh Fath al-Qadir. He
passed away in Ramadan in 860 AH in Cairo and was buried close to the
author in the same graveyard.
XIV
will be wretched and some will be felicitous’ [Qur’an 11:105],

whereupon he responded from his grave with a loud voice, ‘O
Kamal, there is no one amongst us whois wretched.’ Consequently,
Kamal left a will that he be buried there after he dies.’
One of his disciples performed the hajj and saw the shaykh
in the mataf area [around the Kaaba], behind the Maqam [the
standing place of [brahim], in the Sa‘i area and in ‘Arafah. When
he returned to Egypt, he enquired about the shaykh and if he
had left the country in his absence for hajj? They replied, ‘No.’
Then the shaykh entered and greeted him and asked, ‘Who did
you see during this journey of yours?’ He replied, ‘My master, I
saw you.’ So he smiled and said, ‘A great man fills the world. If
the Qutb was invited from a hole, he would respond.”
What scholars have said about him
His shaykh, Abii al-‘Abbas al-Mursi, said to him, ‘Adhere [to the
path], for by Allah, if you adhere, you shall be a mufti in the two
schools of thought.’ In other words, he would thus master the
school of the people of Shariah (outer Islamic sciences) and the
school of the people of agiqah (namely, the inner sciences), And
he said about him one day, “This young man will not die until he
becomes a propagator, calling people to Allah’s path.’
Imam Sha‘rani said about him, “The great abstinent admonisher,
the disciple of Shaykh Yaqit, and before him Shaykh Abu al-
‘Abbas al-Mursi. He would benefit people through his tshdrat
{subtle allusions]. People’s souls would find His speech sweet and
awesome.”
5. al-Munawi, al-Kawakib al-durriyyah (Beirut: Dar al-Sadir, 1420/1999),

3:10.
6. bid.
7. ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha‘rani, al-Tabagat al-kubrd (Cairo: Maktabat
Muhammad al-Maliji, 1315/1897), 2:18-19,
XV
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
Al-Munawi said about him, ‘An Imam, the crown of his

knowledge is raised, his virtue is gathered, the news about his
qualities is well known, the pearls of his wisdom are widespread,
his written works are beneficial... . He had mastery of the outer
sciences and inner gnosis. [He is] an Imam in ¢efsir, hadith and
usil [principles of jurisprudence], an ocean in figh.”®
Imam T4j al-Subki says about him, ‘It appears to me that he
was a Shafi‘, though others have said that he was a Maliki, in his
school of Islamic law. He was the mentor (ustddh) of the shaykh,
Imam, my father, in Sufism. He was an authority, a gnostic
(Grif), endowed with isharat and miracles (karamat) and firmly
established in Sufism. He accompanied Shaykh Abii al-‘Abbas
al-Mursi, the disciple of Shaykh Abi al-Hasan al-Shadhili, and
took from him [the spiritual path]. Shaykh Taj al-Din [ibn ‘Ata’
Allah] settled in Cairo, [where he engaged in] sermonising and
guiding people. He has marvellous words, which his students
recorded in written form.”
Hafiz Ibn Hajar said about him, ‘He accompanied Shaykh
Abi al-‘Abbas al-Mursi, the student of al-Shadhili, and authored
[works] on the merits of them both. He was the spokesman for
the Sufis of his time, and he is the one who vigorously confronted
Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah, and wrote numerous works in that
regard.”
Hafiz al-Dhahabi said about him, ‘He had an amazing aura
and an impact on the hearts and possessed great virtues. He
would speak in the grand al-Azhar mosque on a stool with words
that revitalised the souls. He would mix the words of the Sufis
[literally, the group] with the traditions of the early righteous
Muslim community and a vast array of knowledge. Consequently,
8. al-Munawi, al-Kawakib al-durriyyah, 3:8-9.

9. Taj al-Din al-Subki, Tabagat al-Shafityyah al-kubra, 2nd edn, (Cairo:
Dar Ihya’ al-Kutub al-‘Arabiyyah, 1383/1964), 9:23.
10. Ibn ‘Imad al-Hanbali, Shadharat al-dhahab (Damascus: Dar Ibn
Kathir, 1413/1992), 8:37.
Xvi
his followers grew in number. He was endowed with clear signs

of goodness. Al-Kamal Ja‘far said, “He heard [hadiths] from al-
Abraquhi, and studied grammar with al-Mazini, and undertook
learning figh and literature.”""
Imam Suyiti has said, “The sermons of Taj al-Din ibn ‘Ata’
Allah would be attended by the likes of Shaykh Tagi al-Din
al-Subki, the Imam of his time in ¢afsir, hadith, figh, theology,
the principles of jurisprudence and both textually transmitted
[manqil] and rational [ma‘giil] sciences; [indeed, he was] rather
the mujtahid after whom there was no one like him nor before him
for a long time.””
Imam Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah passed away in Cairo at the Manstriyyah
school in the thirteenth century CE in the month of Jumada al-
Akhirah in 709 AH #.
ll. Lbid.
12. ‘Abd al-Rahmaan al-Suyiti, Ta’yid al-hagigah al-‘aliyyah [Defending
the lofty reality], 2nd edn. (Beirut: Dar al-Fatih, 1415/1994), 69.
XVli
THE REFINEMENT OF SOULS
naa
Introductory remarks
ll praise is due for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and

may He send down His blessings upon our master
uhammad, his family and all his Companions.
This book, The Bride’s Crown: Comprising the Souls’ Refinement,
is the compilation of the Shaykh, the Imam, the one who joined
between the knowledge of the Shariah and the Aagigah,' Taj al-
Din Abi al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari. May
Allah 3@ have mercy on him and shelter him in the midst of
His garden, and shower his blessings upon us and [all of] the
Muslims. May Allah send His blessings and peace upon our
master Muhammad and his Companions. Amin.’
1. ‘Shariah isthe [Divine] command for creation to adhere to servitude [to

Him in accordance with what He has legislated for them on the tongues of His
prophets and messengers], whereas the hagigah {reality] is to behold [with one’s
heart Allah’s] Lordship. Therefore, every Shariah that is not supported by the
hagigah is unacceptable, while every hagigah that is not bound by the Shariah
is futile. Thus, the Shariah came to obligate mankind with responsibilities,
whereas the hagigah came to inform [us] about the Real's disposing [of affairs
in creation]; the Shariah is that you worship Him, whilst the Aagigah is that
you behold Him; the Shariah is to undertake what one has been commanded
with, whilst the hagigah is to be behold what He has ordained and apportioned
(gada@ wa gadar) and what He has concealed and revealed, Ustadh Abi ‘Ali
al-Daqqaq 4 said, “Know that Shariah is hagigah in that it has been made
compulsory by His command, and hagigah is also Shariah in that gnosis of
Him 4 has been made compulsory by His command.” Zakariyya al-Ansari,
Sharh al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah (n.p., 1367/1957), 43.
2, This introductory paragraph is from the scribe, who is most likely one
of the author’s disciples; as for the author’s words, they begin in the following
paragraph from ‘OQ slave, petition...’.
TA] AL-‘ARUS
Repentance to Allah
O slave, petition Allah to enable you to repent at all times, be-

cause Allah has exhorted you to it: ‘O believers, all of you are
to repent to Allah, so that you may succeed’ [Qur’an 24:31]; and
He 3¢ said, ‘Verily, Allah loves the oft-repentant, and He loves
those who purify themselves’ [Qur’an 2:222]. Furthermore, the
Messenger of Allah 3 said, ‘Verily, I seek forgiveness from Allah
seventy times a day.’
If you want to repent, then let no moment of your life be de-
void of reflection. Reflect on what you did during your day: if you
find therein an act of obedience, be thankful to Allah for it; and
if you find therein an act of disobedience, reproach yourself for
that, seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him. The most ben-
eficial occasion for you is to sit (majlis) before Allah and reproach
yourself. Do not reproach yourself while laughing and merry;
instead, reproach yourself while serious and genuine, frown-
ing, sad-hearted, broken and abased. If you do this, Allah will
transform your condition from one of sadness to joy, humility to
honour, darkness to light and from being veiled to [receiving]
disclosure [of higher spiritual realities].
It is related that Shaykh Makin al-Din #,° who was from
amongst the Addai,‘ said, ‘I used to be a tailor in the beginning
of my affair [i.e. the beginning of my spiritual journey to Allah]
3. Shaykh Makin al-Din al-Asmar is: ‘Abi ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mansi al-
Sakandari al-Shadhili. He was born and raised in Alexandria, where he
memorised the Qur’an and excelled in its sciences. He was considered the
shaykh of the various canonical readings (gira’at) [of the Qur’an] and many
great men would come to benefit from him. He was known for spiritual
struggle (mwahddal), amazing states and strange unveilings (mukashafat).
He passed away in Alexandria in 692 AH and was buried next to Abi al-
‘Abbas al-Mursi .’ Muhyi al-Din al-Tu‘ma, al-Tabaqat al-Shadhiliyyah al-kubra
(Beirut: Dar al-Jil, 1416/1996), 220.
4. Abdal (plural of dadl), literally, substitutes, are distinguished saints.
Imam Ahmad has narrated in his Musnad with a chain of transmission in
which there is weakness, but it nevertheless has support: ‘The substitutes
2
The Refinement ofSouls
and would feed myself through that means, and I used to count
my words during the day. Then, when evening would arrive, I
would take myself to account, and I would find my words to be
few; so whatever good I found in them, I would praise Allah and
thank Him for it; and for the rest, I would repent to Allah and
seek His forgiveness.’ [Thus, he persisted] until he became one
of the Abdal 2 .
Know that if you have an agent who holds his self to account
and demands from it his rights, then you do not need to take him
to account, because he does so himself. However, if he does not
do so, then you would have to take him to account and demand
your rights from him and do so rigorously. Accordingly, all your
works should be for Allah 4€; and do not think [for a moment]
that you do anything without Allah 3 taking you to account and
demanding from you His rights.
If a slave commits a sin, darkness accompanies it. Disobedi-
ence is like fire, with darkness as its smoke. If someone was to
light a fire in his house for seventy years, do you not see that it
will become black? Similarly, the heart becomes black by acts of
disobedience. Consequently, it is not purified except by repent-
ance to Allah. Humiliation, darkness and being veiled [from Al-
lah] accompany acts of disobedience. If you repent to Allah, the
traces of sins will disappear.
Negligence does not encroach on you except as a consequence
of your negligence in emulating the Prophet 3 . And you will not
attain honour in Allah’s sight except by emulating him % .
(abdat) in this nation are thirty men whose hearts are in accordance with the
heart of Ibrahim, the All-Merciful’s friend. Whenever a man [amongst them]
passes away, Allah substitutes a man in his place.’ Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi has
an addition in his narration from Abi Darda’: ‘They did not outstrip people
by profusely praying, fasting and invoking the glorification of Allah (tasbih),
but rather by good character, genuine scrupulousness, good intentions and
purity of hearts. Those are Allah’s party (Aizb Allah). Surely, Allah’s party are
the ones who are successful.’
TAy AL-‘ARUS
Types of emulation
Emulation of him 3 is of two types: apparent and subtle. The

apparent is like prayer, fasting, giving charity, performing
pilgrimage, struggling (jihad) and so forth. The subtle is that you
totally absorb yourself in beholding Allah alone in your prayer,
and reflect and ponder on what you recite.
When you perform an act of obedience, like the prayer
or recitation fof the Qur’an], but find in it neither complete
absorption in Allah nor reflection, then know that you have a
hidden disease, such as pride, conceit or the like. Allah 8 said, ‘I
shall avert My signs from those who behave arrogantly on earth
without a right’ [Qur’an 7:146]. [In such a state,] you are like a
person with a fever who finds the taste of sugar to be bitter.
An act of disobedience accompanied by humiliation and
impoverishment is better than an act of obedience accompanied
by pride and arrogance. Allah 8, relating from Ibrahim
the Friend [of Allah] (upon him and our Prophet be the best
blessings and perfect greetings), said, “So whoever follows me,
then he is with me’ [Qur'an 14:36]. Thus, it is understood that
whoever does not follow him is not with him. Moreover, Allah
3, relating from Nih (upon him and the Chosen One be the
purest of blessings and greetings), said, “Verily, my son is from
my family’ [Qur’an 11:45], so He replied, “He is not from your
family; surely, he [has done] an unrighteous deed’ [Qur’an
11:46]. Therefore, emulation renders one as if he is a part of the
one being emulated, even if one is not related by kinship. Such
was the case with Salman the Persian 4, whom the Prophet %
5. “In other words, he is not from those of your family whom I have
promised salvation. This [latter interpretation] is the opinion of Sa‘id ibn
Jubayr. However, the majority [of the exegetes] have said, “That is, he is not
from the people of your religion nor your guardianship.” This proves that
the ruling pertaining to sharing the same religion is greater than the ruling
pertaining to [a common] lineage.’ Abii ‘Abd-Allah al-Qurtubi, Tafsir al-
Qurtubi, 2nd edn. (Beirut: Dar [hya’ al-Turath al-‘Arabi, 1405/ 1985), 9:46.
4
The Refinement of Souls
described in the following words, ‘Salman is from us, the People

of the Household.’ It is well known that Salman was of Persian
origin, but due to his emulation, he [the Prophet 3¢] described
him in such terms so as to teach us. While emulation can establish
such bonds, the lack of emulation causes separation.
Where will you find goodness?
Allah has gathered all goodness in a house and made its key the
emulation of the Prophet 4. Therefore, emulate him by being
content with whatever Allah has given you as provision, and
abstaining and reducing your attachment to this world and to
what does not concern you in words and deeds. Whoever has
the door of emulation opened for him, it is a proof of Allah’s love
for him. He 3€ has said, ‘Say: “If you love Allah, then follow
me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. Allah is Oft-
Forgiving, Merciful” [Qur'an 3:31].
If you desire complete goodness, then say, ‘O Allah, I ask You
to enable me to emulate Your Messenger # in words and deeds.’
Whoever seeks that should not wrong Allah’s slaves by maligning
them. If people had avoided wronging one another, they would
have swiftly reached Allah. However, they were impeded like a
heavily indebted person who is being constantly harassed by his
creditor [for the settling of a debt].
Know that if you had a privileged status with a king and had
an intimate relationship with him, and someone arrived pursuing
you because of a debt, then the king would be stern with you,
even if the debt were a minuscule amount. So what will you do
when you arrive on the Day of Resurrection, when a hundred
thousand people or more are after you because of various debts,
such as usurping property, sullying their reputation and the like?
How will your state be then?
The truly unfortunate person is he whose sins and base desires
have obliterated him until they have left him like a worn-out
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
water skin. This is someone who is truly deprived and to whom

condolences are offered. His food and appetites have disappeared:
he has filled the toilet and pleased his wife with them. If only they
were from a lawful [source]!
Repentance gains Allah’s love %

Thus the first station is repentance, and what follows it is not
accepted except by virtue of it.
The similitude of a slave when he does an act of disobedience
is like that of a new pot: each time it is heated, it increases in
blackness. If you hasten to wash it, the blackness will be washed
off it, but if you leave it and cook in it, time after time, you
will have consolidated the blackness until it disintegrates, and
washing it thereafter will be of no use.
Repentance is therefore that which washes the blackness of
the heart so that deeds appear with the fragrance of acceptance
over them. So ask Allah to enable you to constantly repent. If
you achieve it, then your time will be delightful, because it is a
gift from Allah that He allots to whomever He wills of His slaves.
It may so happen that a slave with cracked heels achieves it, but
not his master; or a woman achieves it, but not her husband;
or a young man achieves it, but not his elder. Therefore, if you
achieve it, then Allah truly loves you, for He 3 has said, ‘Verily,
Allah loves the oft-repentant, and He loves those who purify
themselves’ [Qur’an 2:222].
Only someone who knows the true, precious value of
something will wish for it. If you were to quickly scatter rubies
among beasts, [they would pay no attention because] barley
would have been more preferable to them. Look therefore at
which of the [following] two groups you belong to? If you repent,
you are from amongst those beloved [by Allah]; but if you do not,
then you are from amongst the transgressors. Allah & has said,
‘And whoever does not repent, then he is from the transgressors’
{Our’an 49:11].
Whoever repents has won, and whoever does not has lost.
Do not despair and ask, ‘How often do I repent yet violate [my
repentance by acts of disobedience]; for a sick person hopes for
life as tong as the soul remains alive.
When a slave [of Allah] repents, his abode in Paradise rejoices
for him, the heavens and the earth rejoice for him, and so does
the Messenger #8. The Real 3€ was not satisfied for you to be a
lover; rather, He wants you to be a beloved. And where is the
beloved [in status] compared to the lover?
Woe to a slave who knows of the kindness of the Benevolent,
yet dares to disobey Him! But the one who preferred to disobey
Him did not realise His kindness. The one who was not vigilant
of Him did not know His rank. The unfortunate one is he who
occupied himself with other than Him and knew that his self
(nafs)> was summoning him towards destruction as he followed
it; and knew that his heart was inviting him to guidance
6. The nafs, often translated as the lower self, or merely the self, or the
ego, has been technically defined by the Sufis like Imam Qushayri and Shaykh
Zakariyya al-Ansari, who have said, ‘[(Qushayri:] they {the Sufis] only mean
by nafs that which is blameworthy in [relation to] a slave’s qualities and blame-
worthy in [relation to] his actions and manners. [Ansari:] frequently they use
it to express that which is the source of blameworthy qualities, because of His
words 3 “Verily, the self (nafs) is ever commanding [one to do] evil”, which is
why it is considered to be a man’s worst enemy, as it is difficult to save oneself
from its evil. Do you not see that if a person reconciles with all of his enemies,
then he is safe from their evil; but if he wants to reconcile with his lower self,
then it will destroy him. This is why struggling against it is the greatest strug-
gle (al-jihad al-akbar)’ Further on, Shaykh Zakartyya says, ‘The self by its very
nature inclines towards this world (dunya) because it does not know of anything
other than it as good. But when it realises its deficiency, and its being a barrier
between good deeds, it becomes averse to it, until that which was delightful to
it becomes detestable to it, even though its nature has not changed; rather what
has changed is its perception of what is delightful and what is detestable. Like-
wise, whoever looks towards righteous actions and the difficulty in undertaking
them, he finds his self averse to them; but if he then realises the benefits that
result from their performance, he inclines towards them and detests forsaking
them...’ al-Ansari, Sharh al-Risalah al-Qushayriyyah, 44.
7
TAj AL-‘ARUS
yet he disobeyed it; and knew the rank of the One who was
disobeyed yet confronted Him with disobedience (If he knew
that grandeur was His attribute, he would not have confronted
Him with disobedience.); and knew the proximity of his Master
yet rushed towards that which He has prohibited; and knew the
consequences of both outer and inner sins in the Hereafter yet
lacked modesty before His Lord; and if he knew that he was
completely in His grasp, he would not have opposed Him.
Outer and inner effects of acts of disobedience
Know that disobedience consists of breaching the covenant

[with Allah] and untying the bond of love, giving preference [to
one’s lower self] over the Master, obedience to one’s whims, the
removal of the robe of modesty, and defying Allah by doing that
which displeases Him. In addition, there are apparent effects,
such as the appearance of turbidity in one’s limbs,’ stiffness in the
eyes,® lethargy in service [to Allah], negligence in guarding the
sacred,’ the rise in pursuing base desires and the disappearance
of the splendour of obedience.
As for the subtle effects, they are things such as the hardness of
the heart, stubbornness of the self, constriction of the chest due to
[being subservient to] base desires, loss of sweetness in [perform-
ing] acts of obedience, continuous distractions [{literally, ‘others’
(aghyar), that turn one] from Allah and prevent the radiance of
spiritual lights, prevalence of the state of whim, and so forth,
7. This is a figure of speech for the disappearance of the splendour of light

from his face and limbs because of his acts of disobedience.
8. Thisisa figure of speech for the lack of weeping. Weeping is indicative
of mercy in one’s heart.
9. Thisnegligenceis due to the complacency in committing contraventions
to the Sacred Law, as one sin leads to another to the point that one no longer
reveres the Sacred Law.
such as the succession of doubts, forgetting the final destination

and [what will be] the prolongation of accountability [on the Day
of Judgement].
If there was nothing in an act of disobedience other than the
change in one’s name, then that would have been enough [as a
deterrent}. In other words, if you are obedient, you will be called
devout, whereas if you are disobedient, you will be called a
negligent sinner. This is in terms of the change in one’s name, so
what about the change in effect, such as being transformed from
experiencing sweetness in obedience [to Allah] to experiencing
sweetness in disobedience [to Allah], and from delight in serving
Allah to delight in base desire? This is with respect to change in
effect, so what about the change in one’s description? After you
were described by Allah with beautiful attributes, the matter
becomes reversed, so that you are described with blameworthy
states and conditions. This is in respect to change in description,
so what about the change in rank? So after you were considered
righteous in Allah’s sight, He now sees you as being from
amongst those who sow corruption; and after you were seen
by Him as one of the pious, you are now seen by Him as a
traitor. So if sins manifest before your face, seek help from Allah
and take refuge in Him, throw soil over your head and say, ‘O
Allah, transport me from the humiliation of disobedience to the
honour of obedience.’ In addition, [you should] visit the graves
of Allah’s friends and the righteous and say, “O Most Merciful
of the Merciful!”
The struggle against the lower self

Do you want to struggle against your lower self while empowering
it with base desires until they subdue you? If that is the case, then
you are ignorant! The heart is a tree that is irrigated by the water
of obedience, and its fruits are the states that it experiences: the
fruit of the eye is reflection; the fruit of the ears is listening to the
9
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
Qur’an; the fruit of the tongue is the remembrance fof Allah];

and the fruit of the hands and feet is striving towards good deeds.
If the heart dries up, its fruit will perish.
If the heart is suffering a drought, then profusely invoke
Allah. Do not be like a sick person who says, ‘I shall not take
any medicine until I find a cure,’ and so it is said to him, ‘You
shall not find a cure until you take the medicine.’ There is no
sweetness in the [spiritual] struggle; there is nothing in it except
the heads of spears. So struggle against your self; this is the
greatest struggle (jzhdd). Know that a mother who has lost a
child has no reason to celebrate. In fact, the only one who has a
reason to celebrate is the one who has subdued his self. There is
no call for celebration except for the one who has organised his
affairs. Someone passed by a monastery and said to the monk,
‘O monk, when will these people celebrate?’ He replied, ‘The
day that Allah forgives them.’
The similitude of your behaviour with your self is like that of
someone who finds his wife in a pub, and so brings her beautiful
clothes and delicious food. Then, when she fails to pray, he begins
to feed her sweet pastries and various delicacies.'°
One of them remained for forty years without attending the
congregational prayer because of smelling the foul stench from
the hearts of the heedless. How familiar you are with your
worldly interests, yet how ignorant you are of your interests in
the Hereafter!
Your relation to this world is like that of someone who went
out to a fertile land, farmed it and stored away the produce. In
other words, you have done something whose benefit you will
reap in due course. Yet, if you store away the snakes of desires
and the scorpions of disobedience, then you will be destroyed. It
is sufficient ignorance on your part that, whilst people store away
10. In other words, instead of deterring it, he begins to assist and

encourage it in performing acts of disobedience that it is engaged in.
10
their staple for when they will need it, you store away that which
will actually harm you; namely, acts of disobedience. Have you
seen anyone who brings snakes and then nurtures them in his
house? Yet here you are, doing exactly that!
The most harmful thing feared for you are sins that you
consider trivial, because you are likely to take the enormities
seriously and therefore repent from them. But you underestimate
the minor sins and so do not repent from them. In this case you
are like someone who encounters a lion that Allah saves him
from, but is then defeated by fifty wolves. Allah € has said,
‘And you consider it insignificant, though in the sight of Allah
it is an enormity’ [Qur’an 24:15]. An enormity is insignificant in
comparison to Allah’s generosity. Nevertheless, if you persist in
a minor sin, it becomes an enormity, as poison [eventually] kills
in spite of its small doses. A minor sin is like a spark of fire, and a
spark may burn down a town.
Whoever spends his well-being and health in disobedience to
Allah is like someone whose father has left behind for him a thou-
sand dinars with which he buys snakes and scorpions and puts
them around himself; the latter stings him and the other bites him.
Will they not kill him? You waste hours in opposition to Him;
thus, you are merely like a kite which hovers over a carcass: wher-
ever it finds it, it lands on it. Be like the bee: small in size, but great
in its aspiration, as it collects goodness and bears goodness.
How often have you wallowed around in places of tribulation?
You are to wallow in that which Allah loves, as this reality will
show you your path. But whoever is killed by heedlessness,
tragedies will not bring him back to life. Only an unintelligent
woman laughs as her son dies. Similarly, you are deprived of
standing at night [in prayer] and fasting during the day, and in
all of your limbs [is lethargy], yet you do not feel pain! That is
only because heedlessness has killed your heart. A living person
feels the pain of a needle prick, while the deceased, even if he
was slashed to shreds with swords, feels no pain. Therefore,
[know that] your heart is dead, so [you must] sit in a gathering
1]
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
of wisdom, because in it there is a fragrant breeze (nafhah) from

Paradise, which you find on your way, in your house and in your
room. Do not miss such a gathering, even if you are in a state
of disobedience. Do not ask about the point of attending the
gathering whilst in a state of disobedience which you are unable
to forsake. Rather, the archer should shoot; and if he does not hit
the target today, then he will do so tomorrow.
Warning against disobedience to Allah
Know that you are to be careful of disobedience, for it may cause

sustenance to be suspended.'! So seek Allah’s acceptance of your
repentance; and if it is accepted, [then all is well], otherwise seek
help from Allah and say, ‘O Lord, we have wronged ourselves,
and if You do not forgive us, and have mercy on us, we shall sure-
ly be of the losers’ [Qur’an 7:23]. Do not be like someone who
has lived for forty years and has never knocked on Allah’s door.
The most terrible fate - may Allah protect us — is feared for
you due to the coal of faith being extinguished by the blackness
of disobedience! Namely, continually sinning without repentance
until the heart turns black.
Be mindful that you do not become lax in your deeds and
choose the good things for your toilet! And be careful of your self
which is between your two sides, for it is the one endeavouring to
destroy you. Moreover, it does not part from a person until death.
At least the devil leaves [you alone] during Ramadan, because
during it, the devils are shackled;'? when you find someone killing
11. Ibn Hibban narrated in his Sahih on the authority of Thawban that
he said, “The Messenger of Allah 3 said, “A man is deprived of sustenance
(rizq) due to a sin that he commits...” Its chain of transmission is authentic.
12. Both al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated it. The narration of Muslim
on the authority of Abii Hurayrah is that the Messenger of Allah 3 said,
‘When Ramadan comes, the doors of Paradise are opened, the doors of the
Hellfire are closed and the devils are chained.’
12
and stealing during it, then [know that] this is from the self [and
not the devil]. If the self inclines towards disobedience, remind it
of Allah’s torment and severance from Him as its consequence.
Poisoned honey is left untouched because of the harm it
contains, despite one knowing its sweetness. The Prophet # said,
‘The world is sweet and lush,’ and he also described it as ‘a
gross carcass’.'* It is sweet and lush to those oblivious and a gross
carcass to the intelligent; sweet and lush to the lower selves and
a gross carcass to the mirrors of the hearts; and sweet and lush
as an admonition, and a gross carcass as a means of [causing]
repulsion. ‘Therefore, do not be deceived by its sweetness, because
its outcome is bitter.
If you are asked, “Who is a believer?’ say, “The one who is
aware of his own flaws and does not ascribe a flaw to anyone else,’
and if it is said to you, ‘Who is the one who has been forsaken
[by Allah]?’ say, “The one who ascribes blemishes to others, yet
exonerates himself of them.’
At present, one of the things people persist in is their
conviviality and socialising with the disobedient. If only their
faces frowned [whilst witnessing disobedience], it would have
deterred them from committing acts of disobedience.
If the door to perfection was opened for you, you would not
have returned to vice. Tell me, if someone who has the doors of
palaces opened for him, will he return to rubbish heaps? Had He
opened for you the door to intimacy between yourself and Him,
you would not have sought anyone else for intimacy. If He had
13. Muslim narrated it on the authority of Abi Sa‘id from the Prophet 48
that he said, ‘Verily, this world is sweet and lush, and verily Allah has placed
you therein as a vicegerent to see how you behaye; so guard yourself from this
world and guard yourself from women, for the first tribulation of Bani Isra’il
was because of women.’
14. Aba Nu‘aym narrates from Imam ‘Ali — may Allah ennoble his face —
that he said, ‘This world is a carcass, so whoever wants it, then let him be
patient in mingling with dogs.’
13
TA AL-‘ARUS
chosen you for His Lordship, He would not have severed you
from Himself. If you had been honourable in His sight, He would
not have have cast you aside to someone else.
If He removes from you the love of creation, then rejoice, for
this is from His concern for you. There is no act of disobedience
except it is accompanied by humiliation. Do you disobey Him,
thinking He will honour you? Surely not! He has correlated
honour with obedience, and humiliation with disobedience.
Obedience to Him has become a light and [a source of] honour
and an uncovering of the veil [that prevents one from beholding
Him]; and its opposite is disobedience, darkness, humiliation and
the veil between yourself and Him. But nothing has deprived you
from beholding Him other than your trespassing the bounds and
occupying yourself with this existence (wujild).
If your child is disobedient, discipline him with the Sacred
Law, but do not ostracise him; rather, confront him with a frown
so that he may desist from disobedience. A believer is usually
vulnerable to deception [from Satan] when he is disobedient [to
Allah], for they either disgrace him or mock him." If they do
that, they have strayed off the right path. If a believer commits
an act of disobedience, he has fallen into a great predicament,
and the way to rectify him is to treat him like your disobedient
child: you outwardly shun him, whilst inwardly you have mercy
on him and privately pray for him.
15. Inother words, Satan tricks and deceives him as a consequence of their
behaviour towards him. It has been narrated by al-Bukhari on the authority of
Abi Hurayrah that he said, ‘A man who had drunk [wine] was brought to the
Prophet 3% , and so he said [to his Companions], “Strike him.”’*Abii Hurayrah
said, ‘Some of us were hitting him with their hands, others hitting him with
their shoes and some hitting him with their garments. Then, when he was
leaving, someone said, “May Allah disgrace you,” whereupon the Prophet
said, “Do not say such; do not assist Satan against your brother.” In a variant
of Abi Hurayrah’s hadith, ‘Someone said, “What is the matter with him?
May Allah disgrace him!” So the Messenger of Allah # said, “Do not assist
Satan against your brother,”
14
Envy is sheer ignorance
You are sufficiently ignorant to envy worldly-minded people for

what they have been given and occupy your heart with what
they have. But you are even more ignorant than them, because
they are occupied with what they have been given, while you are
occupied with something you have not been given.
Your eye is inflamed, so you treat it, and the only reason for
that is that you have experienced the delights of this world. You
treat it so that your gaze is not deprived of its delights, while your
inner sight suffers inflammation for forty years, yet you do not
treat 1€.
Know that if the beginning of your life has been wasted, then
it is fitting that its ending be safeguarded. If a woman had ten
children, but nine of them died and one remained, would she not
give her total affection to that remaining one? Even though you
have wasted most of your life, safeguard what is left of it, which
is only a short time. By Allah, your life does not begin from the
time you were born; nay, your life begins from the day you knew
Allah 3€.
Whata world of difference there is between felicitous people and
wretched people! When felicitous people see a person committing
acts of disobedience to Allah, they outwardly condemn him,
while privately praying for him. In contrast, wretched people,
{upon witnessing such disobedience] may condemn the person
for self-gratification and even tarnish his reputation. In fact, a
true believer is someone who sincerely advises his brother in |
private, while concealing his faults in public. In this regard the
wretched are the opposite: if they see a person committing an
act of disobedience, they shut the door on him and disgrace him
because of it. Consequently, the wretched do not have illuminated
insights, and they are remote from Allah.
If you wish to test the intelligence of a man, observe him when
you mention another person to him. If you notice him looking
15
TA] AL-‘ArUs
to find fault in him until he ends up saying to you, ‘Spare us

of him! That person has done such and such!’ then you should
know that his internal state is in ruins, and there is no hint of
gnosis in him. On the other hand, if you see that he mentions
him positively, or when something blameworthy is mentioned
about him, he finds a positive explanation for him, and says
‘maybe he forgot’, or some similar excuse, then know that his
inward state is flourishing, for a believer endeavours to protect
the honour of his Muslim brother.
Whoever realises the immediacy of his departure

hastens to acquire provisions
Whoever approaches the end of his life, and wishes to redress

what he has missed out on, should remember [Allah] with
comprehensive invocations. If he was to do that, then his short
life will become extended. An example of such a comprehensive
invocation is:
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7
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‘Glory be to Allah the Almighty together with His praise,
by the number of His creation, His good pleasure, the
weight of His throne and the ink of His words."
Subhan Allah al-Azim wa bi hamdihi, ‘adada khalgihi wa rida
nafstht wa zinata ‘arshtht wa midada kalimatthi.
16. Muslim (2726) and others have narrated on the authority of

Juwayriyah &% that the Prophet 3% one day left her after the dawn prayer, while
she was [sitting] in her place of prayer. He then returned after mid-morning,
as she was [still] sitting, and said, ‘You are still in the same position as when I
left you?’ She replied, ‘Yes.’ The Prophet % said, ‘I said after [I left] you four
phrases thrice, that if they were to be weighed against what you have said
today, they would outweigh them: “Glory be to Allah the Almighty together
with His praise, by the number of His creation, His good pleasure, the weight
of His throne and the ink of His words”.’
16
Similarly, if you failed to profusely fast and pray, then

you should occupy yourself with invoking blessings upon
the Messenger of Allah 3%; for if you were to do every act of
obedience throughout your life, and Allah were to send down
His blessing (sa/a@t) upon you once, then that one blessing would
outweigh all the acts of obedience that you have done throughout
your life. That is because you invoke blessings upon the Prophet
# according to your capacity, whereas He sends down His mercy
according to His Lordship. If this is the case with just a single
invocation of blessings, then what about when He sends down
upon you ten [blessings] for each one [you invoke], as has been
related in the authentic tradition? How fine a life it is to obey
Allah therein by remembering Him 3 or invoking blessings
upon Allah’s Messenger #!
It has been related that there is not a game that is caught, nor
a tree that is cut, except as a consequence of its heedlessness from
the remembrance of Allah 3. A burglar does not burgle a house
while its inhabitants are awake; rather, he does so when they are
oblivious or asleep.
Whoever knows the immediacy of his departure will hasten
in acquiring provisions. Whoever knows that someone else’s
devotional acts are of no benefit to him, will endeavour to do
the same himself [so that he actually benefits]. Whoever spends
without counting, will end up bankrupt without realising.
Whoever appointed an agent, will dismiss him upon learning of
his betrayal. Likewise, you have realised your self’s betrayal, so
dismiss it and be stern with it.
If you see in yourself apathy [to obedience], base desires,
and obliviousness, then [know that] these are attributes from
yourself. But if you see in yourself remorse (¢ndbah), humility,
and abstinence, then these are from the workings of Allah.
Similarly, if you see in your country alfa (a water plant], or
thorns or boxthorn, then [you know that] this is a plant from
your country’s earth. Yet, if you see in it moist peony, musk or
17
TA) AL-‘ARUS
amber, then you know that it has been brought about by the
workings of Allah, because it is not one of the plants that grow in
your land, for musk is from Iraqi gazelles and amber is from the
Indian Ocean.
The reality offaith

When you disobey Allah %, your faith is like that of the
eclipsed sun or a lamp covered with a plate; in other words,
the light [of faith] is blocked due to being covered. You attend
the [religious] gathering in the Grand Mosque to enrich your
mind; even if your life is short, it is stretched because of faith,
humility, subservience, awe [of the Divine], pondering, reflect-
ing and so forth. If you had realised [true] faith, you would
not have approached disobedience. There is no debtor more
procrastinating than the self,’ no enemy greater than the devil
and no opponent stronger than whim.
Nothing repels the descent of divine succour like pride. Rain
only settles on shallow lands, not on mountain peaks. Similarly,
mercy falls from the hearts of the arrogant and descends on the
hearts of the humble. What is meant by the arrogant are those
who rebuff [Allah’s] right, not those whose clothes are elegant:
‘However, pride is the denunciation of [Allah’s] right and
contempt for people.”* Do not think that pride is only found in
a vizier or an affluent person; on the contrary, it may be found
in someone who does not have supper for the night, yet he sows
17. This is because the self delays one from repenting and desisting from
committing sins.
18. Muslim (91) and others have narrated on the authority of ‘Abd-Allah
ibn Mas‘iid # that he said, ‘The Messenger of Allah 4 said, “No one with an
atom’s weight of pride in his heart will enter Paradise.” So a man said, “A man
loves his clothes to be elegant and his shoes to be elegant?” He replied, “Verily,
Allab is beautiful and loves beauty. Pride [however] is the denunciation of
[Allah’s] right and contempt for people.”
18
corruption and does not rectify [matters], because he disdained

Allah Most High’s right.'°
Do not think that the unfortunate person is someone who is a
war captive or a prisoner. On the contrary, the truly unfortunate
person is someone who disobeys Allah and brings into this pure
kingdom the filth of disobedience.
There are many who spend dinars and dirhams, while those
who spend tears” are few.
The real fool is he who, when his son dies, begins to cry over
him yet does not cry over what he has been deprived of by Allah
4% . It is as if his state is saying, ‘I am crying over what used to busy
me from my Lord.’ He should, instead, rejoice at that and devote
himself to his Master, since He has taken from him that which
used to preoccupy him from Him. It is disgraceful that your
hair turns white, yet you are still [like] a child in [your lack of]
intelligence and do not understand what Allah wants from you!
If you are intelligent, cry over yourself before you are cried over.
Your child, wife, servant and friend do not cry over you when you
die; rather, they cry over what they have missed out on from you.
So beat them to the crying and say, ‘I deserve to cry over the loss
of my portion from my Lord before you cry over me.’
How ignorant you are! Your Master treats you faithfully, while
you treat Him callously.
Who is a real man?
A real man is not someone who screams amongst people in

gatherings; rather, a real man is only he who screams over his
self and steers it back to Allah.
19. The printed edition has ‘over Allah’s creation (thalg)’, while the
manuscript has ‘over Allah’s right (hagq)’, which is probably the correct version
because he previously mentioned, ‘However, pride is denunciation of [Allah’s]
right.’
20. In another edition it reads ‘souls’ instead of ‘tears’.
19
TA AL-‘ARUS
Whoever is concerned with this world and not bothered about

the Hereafter is like someone to whom a lion approaches for the
kill, and then a flea comes and bites him, and so he becomes
distracted with the flea from paying any attention to the lion.
Whoever is heedless of Allah busies himself with the trivial,
whereas the one who is not heedless of Him will preoccupy
himself with none other than Him. The best state for you is to
lose this world in order to gain the Hereafter. How often you
have lost the Hereafter to gain this world! How awful is fear in a
soldier! How awful is a grammatical error from a grammarian!
How awful is the pursuit of this world for someone who feigns
abstinence from it!
A true man is not someone who nurtures you through his
words; rather, a true man is only he who nurtures you through
his gaze.
The blessing of the gaze from a friend of Aliah (wali)
It has been related that Shaykh Abi al-‘Abbas al-Mursi # ”' said,
‘If a tortoise nurtures its hatch with its gaze, then likewise a shaykh
nurtures his disciples with his gaze; for a tortoise hatches its eggs
on land, heads towards the river, and gazes at its hatch; then Allah
nurtures them through its gaze upon them.’
Beware lest you leave this abode while not having tasted
the sweetness of His love. The sweetness of His love is not in
food and drink, as even disbelievers and beasts have that in
21. He is Ahmad Abi al-‘Abbas al-Mursi. He was amongst the greatest

gnostics, and it has been said that he was the only inheritor of Shaykh Abi
al-Hasan al-Shadhili’s knowledge . He is the foremost of those who took
the spiritual path from the latter. He would say, ‘The knowledge of this group
[Sufis] is the knowledge of realisation, and the knowledge of realisation
cannot be carried by the intellects of the majority of creation.’ Similarly, his
shaykh, Abii al-Hasan al-Shadhili, would say, ‘My books are my disciples.’
He passed away in 686 AH. al-Sha‘rani, al-Tabagat al-kubra (Cairo: Maktabat
Muhammad al-Maliji, 1315/1897), 2:11.
20
common with you. Instead, join the angels in the sweetness of His
remembrance and utter devotion to Allah 3€, because the souls
cannot bear the dribble of the egos. If they are immersed in the
carcass of this world, then they will not be fit to attain presence of
the heart [with Allah], because Allah’s proximity 8 (hadrah)” is
not accessible to those defiled by the impurity of disobedience. So
purify your heart from blemishes, and the door to the unseen shall
open up for you. Furthermore, repent to Allah and return to Him
with penitence and remembrance. Whoever continues to knock
on the door, it shall be opened for him. If it was not for civility,
we would have said to you what has been mentioned by Rabi‘ah
‘Adawiyyah @ ,27 ‘When has this door been closed for it to be
opened?’ This is a door that will deliver you unto His proximity.
Beware of the heart’s obliviousness of Allah’s Oneness
(wahdantyyah), since the first stage of those who occupy themselves
with the remembrance of Allah is to be mindful of His Oneness 3.
Those who {truly] remember Him only remember Him, and things
are only disclosed to them by virtue of this constant recollection;
and they were not expelled [from spiritual witnessing] except due to
their remembrance that was dominated by heedlessness. You can
seek assistance in overcoming that [heedlessness] by suppressing
the two desires: the stomach and the genitals.** Nothing stands
between you and Allah except your lower self.
22. ‘Know that what is meant by Allah’s proximity (hadrah) 4@ whenever

uttered on the tongues of the group [of Sufis] is the servant’s beholding (shuhiid)
himself as being before Allah 3¢; as long as this is what he beholds, then he
is in Allah’s proximity.’ ‘Abd al-Majid al-Shurnabi, Sharh al-Hikam, 8th edn.
(Damascus: Dar Ibn Kathir, 1422/2002), 99.
23. She is also known as Rabi‘ah al-Basriyyah. She was renowned for her
extreme piety and celibacy. She passed away in Basra and was buried there
in 180 AH.
24. Al-Bukhari (6109) and others have narrated on the authority of Sa‘d
ibn Sa‘d & that the Messenger of Allah % said, ‘Whoever guarantees me [that
he will guard] what is between his two jawbones and what is between his two
legs, I shall guarantee him Paradise.’
21
TAj AL-‘ARUS
Gaining favour with Allah %&
How often you try to gain favour with the creation, yet how
seldom you try to gain favour with the Real! If the door to gaining
favour with Allah was opened for you, you would see wonders,
Two cycles of prayer in the middle of the night, visiting the sick,
your praying over the dead, giving charity to the poor, assisting
your Muslim brother and the removal of anything harmful from
the path are all means of gaining favour [with Allah]. However,
the fallen sword requires a forearm [to lift it]. There is no act of
worship more beneficial for you than invoking Allah, because it
is feasible for an old man and for a sick person who is unable to
stand, bow and prostrate.
Know that the scholars and the sages acquaint you with how to
present yourself before Allah 36. Have you ever seen a slave who
is fit to serve [his master] immediately upon being purchased? On
the contrary, he is given to someone who trains and disciplines
him, whereupon becoming worthy and learned in the proper
etiquette he is presented before the king. Similarly, the disciples
of Allah’s friends, may Allah be pleased with them, accompany
them until they gently nudge them to His presence. In this regard,
they are like a swimmer teaching a child how to swim: initially, he
accompanies the child until the latter is able to swim by himself;
and when he is accomplished, he is pushed out to sea and left to it.
The prophets #4 and Allah’s friends *

are the greatest means to Him ¥%
Beware lest you believe that the prophets, the friends of Allah
and the righteous are of no benefit,”> for surely Allah has made
them a means (wasilah) to Him. That is because every miracle of
a friend of Allah is a testimony to the veracity of the Prophet #
25. In another edition it reads ‘Beware, lest you believe the prophets ...
are not a means for gaining proximity (tawassul) [to Allah)’.
22
since they only happen to occur at the hands of Allah’s friends.

These [miracles] include supernatural phenomena, walking
on water, flying in the air, disclosure of the unseen, and water
springing forth, They were only granted such miracles as a
consequence of [their emulation of] the prophets.
It has been related that Shaykh Abi al-Hasan al-Shadhili 76
said, ‘Measure and weigh your self with the prayer; if it [the self]
desists from its desires, know that you are felicitous.’ Allah 3
says, ‘Verily, prayer deters [one] from committing obscene and
abominable deeds’ (Qur'an 29:45]. If you have to drag your feet
to the prayer, then cry over yourself. Have you ever seen a lover
who does not wish to meet his beloved? Whoever wants to know
what his reality is with Allah, and see his standing with Him,
then let him look at his prayer: it is either with calmness and
humility, or with heedlessness and haste. If you pray without the
former two qualities, then throw soil over your head [in disgrace].
Whoever sits with a perfume seller, its fragrance lingers on him.
The prayer is the occasion when you sit with Allah 3€. So if you
26. He is ‘Ali ibn ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Jabbar al-Shadhili, from

Shadhilah, a village in North Africa; the blind ascetic who settled in
Alexandria and became the Shaykh of the Shadhili Order. He was highly
esteemed and lofty, and had many Sufi utterances (‘bdrdt) and allegories
(rumiiz). He accompanied Shaykh Najm al-Din Isfahani, Ibn Mashish and
others. He frequently performed the pilgrimage, and in one of the years, as he
was in the ‘Aydhab desert on his way to pilgrimage, he passed away and so was
buried there; this was in the month of Dhi al-Qa‘dah in 656 AH. Abi ‘Abd-
Allah ibn al-Nu‘man attested to his reaching the rank of Qutb, who brought
to this path wonders upon wonders. Shaykh Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id would say about
him, ‘I have not seen anyone with a deeper gnosis than Shaykh Abii al-Hasan
4.’ He (Shaykh Abi al-Hasan] used to say, ‘If your spiritual unveiling (kash/)
contradicts the Book and the Sunnah, then adhere to the Book and the
Sunnah and leave the spiritual unveiling, and say to yourself, “Indeed, Allah
has guaranteed immunity (‘ismaf) for me in the Book and the Sunnah, but did
not guarantee it for me in [my] spiritual unveiling, nor [in my] inspiration
(ham), nor [in my] beholding (mushahadah) [of higher spiritual realities].”” al-
Sha‘rani, al-Tabagat al-kubra, 2:4.
23
TA] AL-‘ARUS
sit with Him, yet you do not gain anything from Him, then that
indicates a disease in your heart, such as pride, conceit, or poor
etiquette. Allah 3 said, ‘I shall avert My signs from those who
display arrogance on the earth without a right’ [Qur’an 7:146].
Therefore, whoever has performed the prayer, he should not
leave hastily. Instead, he should remember Allah 3 and seek
His forgiveness due to his shortcomings therein, since many a
prayer is not worthy of acceptance. If you seek Allah’s forgiveness
after its performance, it will be accepted. When the Prophet 3
would pray, he would seek Allah’s forgiveness three times [after
the prayer].
How many states are hidden in you! When trials and tribula-
tions befall, they are revealed. The most sinful of them is doubt
about Allah; and doubt about one’s provisions is in reality a
doubt about the Provider [Himself].
The triviality of this world (duny4)
This world is too trivial for one to be occupied with it. Due to
aspirations becoming trivial, people have become occupied with
the trivial. If you were significant, then you would be occupied
with what is significant. Whoever occupies himself with the trivial
and leaves that which is important, we regard him to be a fool.
Undertake the duties and tasks of servitude that are required
of you, and He shall undertake that which He has committed
Himself to. Does He provide for insects, while forgetting to
provide for you? Allah 8 said, ‘And enjoin prayer on your people,
and steadfastly persevere in doing so, We do not ask you for any
provisions; We are the ones who provide for you. The [good] end
belongs to the righteous’ [Qur’an 20:132].
Whoever is mindful of Allah’s right 8, Allah will not create
anything in His kingdom except He will inform him thereof.
One of them looked at a group of people and said to them,
24
‘Js there anyone amongst you whom Allah informs whenever He

creates something in His kingdom?’ They replied, ‘No.’ He said,
‘Weep over yourselves.’
The early Muslim community would ask a person about his
condition in order to induce him to express gratitude; people
today however should not be asked; because if you ask, you will
incite them to complain.
It has been related about a grave robber that he repented to
Allah 3€. One day he said to his shaykh, ‘O my master, I have
robbed a thousand graves, and have found their faces turned
away from the Qiblah!’ The shaykh replied, ‘My child, that is
because of their doubts concerning [their] provision.’
O slave of Allah, if you are to ask Allah [for something], then
ask Him to to better you in all respects, and that He betters you
so that you become content with Him planning your affairs
for you.
Moreover, you are a fugitive slave. He asked you to cross
over to Him, but [instead] you fled from Him; since fleeing
manifests through deeds, states and aspirations. Hence, if you
are unmindful in your prayer, speaking gibberish during your
fast, or complaining about Allah’s kindness, are you not then a
fugitive?
Holding one’s self to account
It has been related that Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili

said, ‘I once stayed in the desert for three days without anything
being unveiled to me. Some Christians passed by and saw me
reclining and said, “This is a Muslim priest.” They then placed
beside my head some food and departed. I said, “How strange!
How I have been given provision at the hands of the enemies
and not given provision at the hands of loved ones!” Thereupon,
it was said [by a hidden voice], “A true man is not someone who
25
TAy AL-‘ARUS
is sustained at the hands of his loved ones; rather, a true man is

only he who is sustained at the hands of his enemies.”
O you, treat your self like your beast: whenever it strays from
the path, hit it, so that it returns to the path. If only you were to
treat your self like your coat: whenever it gets dirty, you wash
it, and whenever anything of it rips, you mend and fix it; then
you would be felicitous. Many a man, his beard having become
white, has not sat with Allah for a moment in which he took
himself to account. Shaykh Makin al-Din al-Asmar 4 used to
say, ‘In the beginning, I used to take myself to account in the
evening and say, “I have said today such and such.” So I would
find three or four words.’ One day, there was with him a shaykh
who was around ninety years of age. He [Shaykh Makin ] said,
‘O my master, I complain to you of the immensity of [my] sins.’
The shaykh replied to him, “This is something with which we are
not familiar; I am not aware of ever committing a sin.’””
Just as this world has people who suffice those who depend
upon them, the Hereafter also has people who relieve the needs
of those who depend upon them. Do not say, “We have searched
but did not find.’ If you had searched with sincerity, then you
would have found [them]. The reason for you not finding them
[i.e. the people of the Hereafter] is your lack of preparation.
A bride is not presented before a profligate. If you want to see
the bride, then you have to forsake immorality. If you forsake
immorality, you will see Allah’s friends. Allah’s friends are many,
and their number does not diminish.” If they were to diminish
by even one, the light of prophethood would diminish.
27. The manuscript copy reads ‘And I do not know of ever not commit-
ting a sin’.
28. In another edition it reads ‘their number does not diminish and nor
does their succour’.
26
If you love someone, you will not reach him until you are
worthy of reaching him, and that is not until you have mended
your ways. Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili # said, ‘The
friends of Allah are like brides, and brides are not seen by
criminals.’
The sweetness offaith
If you find acts of obedience and worship burdensome and do

not find any sweetness in your heart for them, while acts of diso-
bedience are effeortless for you and you find in them sweetness,
then know that you are not genuine in your repentance. If the
root is healthy, then the fruit will [also] be healthy.
If only you obeyed your Master as your slave obeys you. In
other words, you always want your slave to be ready to serve you,
and you love to be obeyed. Yet, you seek release from [obedience
to] Him as quickly as possible, as if you are pecking with the beak
[as you perform the prayer in haste]. If only the sight by which
you look at the beauty of others was substituted for blindness.
How much humiliation you have suffered by standing at the
doors of creation! And how much have they humiliated you, yet
you still do not return to your Master!
It has been related that Shaykh Makin al-Din al-Asmar 4
said, ‘In a dream I saw a maiden from Paradise saying, “I am for
you, and you are for me.” Because of her enchanting speech, for
two or three months, I was unable to listen to any human speech
without vomiting.’
It is enough shunning [of reality] on your part that you open
your eyes [in longing] to this abode. Allah 3€ said, ‘And do
not stretch your eyes after that with which We have provided
different classes of them, (of) the splendour of this world’s life,
that We may thereby try them’ [Qur’an 20:131].
He has ordained for you health and sickness, affluence and
poverty, happiness and sadness, so that you may come to know
Him by His attributes.
27
TAy AL-‘ARUS
Whoever accompanies you for a day or two and sees no benefit

in [accompanying] you, will leave you and accompany someone
else; you, on the other hand, accompany your self for forty years,
yet you do not see any benefit from it! So say to it, ‘Return to
the pleasure of your Lord! How often have I conformed to your
desires, so turn from idleness to occupation with Allah, from
speech to silence, from standing at the doors to sitting in isolation,
from intimacy with creation to intimacy with the Creator, and
from accompanying the profligate to accompanying the virtuous
and pious.’
Turn your states to the opposite of what they used to be: instead
of staying awake at night in disobedience to Allah, stay awake
at night in obedience to Allah; after inclining towards worldly-
minded people, turn away from them and be devoted to Allah;
after listening to their speech, lend an ear and listen to the speech
and remembrance of Allah 3€; and after eating out of greed and
desire, eat only a little which assists you to obey [Allah].
Allah 3€ said, ‘Those who strive for Our sake, We shall surely
guide them to Our paths’ [Qur’an 29:69]. Only someone who
is unaware of Allah’s punishment will disobey Him; and only
someone who is unaware of Allah’s reward will fail to obey
Him. If they were aware of Allah’s punishment, they would not
have been oblivious; and if they were aware of what Allah has
prepared for the denizens of Paradise, they would not have left it
[i.e. obedience to Him] for a blink of an eye.
If you accompany those engrossed with this world, they shall
attract you towards it. Yet, if you accompany those engrossed
with the Hereafter, they shall attract you towards Allah. The
Messenger of Allah # said, ‘A person is in accordance with the
religion of his intimate friend, so each one of you should look
at whom he takes as an intimate friend.’ Just as you select for
yourself delicacies in which there is nothing harmful, and a
beautiful wife to marry, then likewise do not befriend other than
the one who will acquaint you with the path to Allah 3.
28
A person’s close companions
Know that you have three close companions:
1. wealth, which you lose when you die;

2. family, who will leave you behind at the grave;
3. and your works; and they never part from you!
Begin by accompanying the one whoshall enter with youin your

grave and with whom you will enjoy intimacy;” for an intelligent
person is one who comprehends Allah’s commandments and
prohibitions.
Your similitude is like that of a beetle: it lives in dung and
excrement, and when a rose is brought close to it, it dies from
its fragrance. So too there are amongst people those who are
like beetles in their aspirations and like moths in intelligence.
A moth continues to throw itself into the fire until it burns
therein, so likewise you deliberately throw yourself in the fire of
disobedience. If you wanted to journey to Allah, you would have
tied your belt. So where is the aspiration?
You only eat to live and not live to eat. If you do the latter, then
you are like those things that are found abundantly in places
where worms reside. Furthermore, [if you are as such,] then the
likes of you are found abundantly amongst beasts. [You should
know that] the fastest horse is the lean one. You say, “Tonight
I shall reduce my food intake.’ Then, when food is presented
before you, it is as if it is a long-lost loved one. For whomsoever
Allah does not will his betterment, then words are fatigued in
[trying to convince] him. Allah 3 said, ‘For whomsoever Allah
29. Al-Bukhari (6149), Muslim (2960) and others have narrated on the
authority of Anas ibn Malik @& that the Messenger of Allah % said, “Three
things follow the deceased (two of which return, and one remains with him):
his family, wealth and deeds. His family and wealth return, while his deeds
remain with him.’
29
TA] AL-‘ARUS
wills that he be tried, then you shall not possess anything for him
against Allah’ (Qur'an 5:41].
How desperately you flee from humiliation, yet how entrenched
you are in it! You humiliate your self and throw it into disastrous
situations.
One of them said, ‘Be with Allah like a child is with his mother:
whenever his mother pushes him away [because of the child’s
own bad behaviour], he throws himself all over her, because he
knows that there is no one else to turn to.’
Is there any buyer for our merchandise?
O slave of Allah, you are selective in choosing your delicacies. In

fact, you are even selective in choosing the fodder for your riding
beast. Yet, you treat Allah arbitrarily! Sometimes you turn over
twenty watermelons until you find the one you desire, but that is
merely fit for your toilet. You sit cross-legged when eating so that
you may expand your intake. Yet, when you come to perform
the prayer, you peck like a cockerel, with whisperings and bad
thoughts going through your mind as you pray. The similitude
of someone whose state is such is like that of someone who sets
himself as a target and sits as spears and arrows are shot at him
from every angle and direction; is this person not stupid?
The similitude of you listening to wisdom but not acting
accordingly is only like that of someone who wears armour but
does not fight. Indeed, our merchandise has been advertised, so
is there a buyer [out there]?
Your value is of that with which you are occupied. Thus, if you
are occupied with this world, then you have no value, because
this world is like a worthless carcass.
The best thing that a slave can ask from Allah is that He
makes him unwavering [in his relationship] with Him. Allah a6
said, ‘Keep us guided steadfast on the straight path’ (Qur'an 5:1].
So seek guidance and steadfastness from Him, which is for you
30
to be with Allah under all circumstances in [a state] which He is

pleased for you, and that is [conforming with] what the Prophet
# conveyed from Allah 3.
Whoever expends pure love for Allah, Allah will make him
drink from His pure generosity.
The similitude of the spiritual wayfarer is like that of someone
who digs for water little by little until he discovers water after
much fatigue. The similitude of the majdhib*° is like that of
someone who sought water and a cloud brought rain for him to
take from it without fatigue.
If you give your self every appetite that it desires and seeks,
then you are like someone in whose house is a snake that he
fattens every day until it ends up killing him. If Allah placed
in you a spirit without a self, then you would have obeyed and
never disobeyed. In contrast, if He had placed in you a self
without a spirit, then you would have disobeyed and never
obeyed. Consequently, you waver. He has placed within you
a heart, a spirit, a self, and caprice, like a bee in which he
has placed the sting and honey: the honey is by virtue of His
benevolence (6i birrihi),*! while the sting is by virtue of His
overwhelming force (gahr). Allah wanted to break the claim of
the self by the presence of the heart, and the claim of the heart
by the presence of the self.
O slave of Allah, He asked you to be His slave, but you refused
except to be the opposite. Your devotion to Allah is your worship-
ing Him solely and exclusively, so how can He be expected to be
pleased with you worshipping other than Him? If you had turned
30. ‘A majdhiib is someone whom Allah 43 is pleased with for Himself

and has chosen for His intimate proximity and purified with the water of His
sanctity, so he attained the honour and gifts of spiritual stations and degrees
without effort and fatigue.’ ‘Abd al-Mun‘im al-Hafni, al-Mujam al-Sufi, 2nd
edn. (Beirut: Dar al-Masirah, 1407/1987), 236.
31. Inthe manuscript it reads ‘by virtue of His secret (61 swrrthi).
31
TA AL-‘ARUS
to Us merely seeking gifts, you would not have done Us justice, so

what about®2 when you devote yourself to other than Us?
This world has barred the way to the next, so it impeded the
arrival to it; and the Hereafter has stood in the way of the Real,
so it prevented the arrival to Him.
Indeed, from Allah’s kindness to you is that He discloses to
you the flaws and blemishes of yourself, while concealing them
from people.
If you are given this world and deprived of gratitude for it,
then it is a tribulation for you. The Messenger of Allah 38 said, ‘A
little of this world distracts one from the path to the Hereafter.’
One of them had a wife who said to him, ‘I cannot bear for
you to be away from me, nor for you to be busy with someone
else” A voice was then heard saying, ‘If this is not a creator, nor
an originator, yet she loves for your heart to be solely engrossed
with her, then how can I not be expected to love for your heart to
be solely devoted to Me?’
I once said to Shaykh Abii al-‘Abbas al-Mursi 4, “There are
things in my self.’*? The shaykh replied, ‘If the self is yours, then
do whatever you want with it, though you will not be able to do so.’
Then he said, ‘The self is like a woman: the more you quarrel with
her, the more she quarrels back, so hand it over to its Lord that He
may do with it what He wills.’ Sometimes you tire yourself out in
nurturing it, yet it does not submit to you. A Muslim is therefore
someone who hands over his self to Allah, due to the proof in
His words 3, ‘Indeed, Allah has bought from the believers their
persons and wealth in return for Paradise’ (Qur’an 9:111}.
If your Master loves you, He turns your friends away from
you, so that you no longer preoccupy yourself with them, and
severs your ties with creation so that you return to Him.
32, In another edition it reads ‘so how can He be pleased’.

33. [SM] In other words, there are attachments that trouble it and
disturb its moments of pure intimacy with Allah %.
32
How often you demand from your self to obey [Allah], yet it
slackens! You only need to treat your self in the beginning, and
then, when it tastes [Allah’s] grace, it will come willingly. Then,
the sweetness that you used to experience in disobedience, you
shall in turn find it in obedience.
The similitude of faith in the heart is like that of a green tree:
when acts of disobedience become too much for it to bear, it dries
up and its [ability to] support and benefit dissipates. Whoever
wants to fulfil his obligations, then let him forsake the unlawful.
Whoever forsakes the offensive (makriihat) will be assisted in per-
forming good deeds. Whoever forsakes the permissible (mubah),
He will give him generously beyond imagination and allow him
[to enter] His presence. In addition, whoever forsakes listening to
whatever is unlawful for him, He shall allow him to truly listen
to His speech.**
How easy it is for you to do an act of devotion wherein lies
caprice for yourself, and how arduous is that in which there is no
caprice! An example of this would be if you intended to perform
a voluntary hajj but someone suggested that you instead give
in charity the amount [you would have spent on the hajj]. In
this case, you will find it burdensome; that is because the act of
pilgrimage is something seen, so the self finds gratification in it,
whereas charity is hidden and forgotten.
A similar situation arises with your studying sacred knowledge
when, in reality, it is for other than Allah. For instance, you study
throughout the night, whilst you take pleasure in that. Yet, if
you are told to pray two cycles at night, you find it burdensome.
Again, this is because the two cycles of prayer are solely for Allah
3€, without any gratification for the self, whilst the self finds
gratification in reading and studying due to participating with
others. As a result, it is easy for the self.
One of them said, ‘My self craved for marriage, whereupon
I saw the mihrab split open and a shoe made of gold adorned
34, In another edition it reads ‘his speech is reduced’.
33
TAj AL-‘ARUS
with pearls emerged.’ So it was said to me, “[If] this is her shoe,
then what about her face?” Thereafter, the craving for marriage
vacated my heart.’
Whoever has lodgings prepared for him will not be satisfied
with sitting in rubbish heaps. So perform righteous deeds
privately, [keeping them] between yourself and Allah, and do not
let your family notice them. Store them away with Allah, so that
you will find them on the Day of Resurrection. [This privacy is
necessary] because the self takes pleasure in mentioning its deeds.
One of them fasted for forty years without his family noticing it.
Do not expend your breaths in other than obedience to Allah.
And do not look at the minuteness of the breaths; rather, look
at their worth and the reward that Allah will give the slave for
[using] them [correctly]. The breaths are jewels! Have you seen
anyone throw a jewel in the bin?
Do you improve your exterior yet ruin your interior? [If you
only improve your exterior,| then you are like a leper who wears
new clothes while puss and serum oozes out of his interior. You
rectify that which people witness, yet you do not rectify your
heart which is for your Lord!
Wisdom is the chain of a believer
Wisdom is like a chain: if you chain your self to it, it will be

restrained; but if you throw it off, it will run loose, and you will
be feared for. The similitude of that is like a madman in your
house: he ravages it and tears up the clothes; if you chain him,
you will be relieved of him; but if you throw off the chain and
leave [the house], then the harm will continue.
O old man (shaykh), you have wasted your life, so redress what
you have missed. You have worn white, which is your white hair;
and whiteness should not bear dirt.*°
35. In other words, someone whose hair has turned white should not
defile himself with acts of disobedience.
34
The heart is like a mirror, and the self is like a breath: every
time you breathe on the mirror, it is clouded.
The heart of a profligate” is like the mirror of a decrepit old
woman whose aspiration has grown too weak to polish and look
in to it. In contrast, the heart of the gnostic is like the mirror of a
bride: she looks in it every day, and so it remains polished.
How to cleanse your heart
The aspiration of those who renounce [this world] is to profusely

do good deeds, while the aspiration of the gnostics is to correct
their states [with Allah].
There are four things that will help you in cleansing your
heart: frequent remembrance [of Allah], constant silence,
seclusion, and eating and drinking little.
When those who are oblivious wake in the morning, they
examine their wealth; those who renounce this world and
worship Allah examine their states; and those who have gnosis
of Allah examine their hearts’ [attachment] to Allah %.
There is not a breath that Allah 4 brings forth from you, be
it an act of worship, an illness or poverty, except that He wants
to thereby test you. Whoever seeks this world by means of the
Hereafter is like someone who takes a spoon made of ruby to
scoop excrement. How could this person not be regarded a fool?
Do not think that people have been merely deprived of
knowledge; more than that, they have rather been deprived of
divine enablement to obey Him (taw/iq).
The first thing that you should cry over is your [lack of]
intelligence; just as droughts occur in pastures, so too they occur
in the minds of men.
inte
36. In another edition it reads ‘the heart of the helpless’.
35
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
The greatest blessing
It is by virtue of the intellect that people have lived with one

another and with Allah 3€: with people through good character,
and with Allah by observing those things which please Him.
If Allah favours you with three things, then He has favoured
you with the greatest blessing:
1. not trespassing His limits;

2. fulfilling His covenants;
3. and drowning in His presence.
The only reason for your amazement at the states of the

gnostics is your immersion in severance [from Allah]. If you
had joined them in their travels, you would have joined them in
their accounts; and if you had joined them in their difficulties
[of their spiritual struggle], then you would have joined them in
their bliss.%”
When you are self-satisfied you are like a tied camel: if you
untie it, it will run away. The Messenger of Allah 4 said, “Indeed,
the heart of Adam’s son revolves more than [what is in] a boiling
pot on the fire.’
How many a person was absorbed in Allah (jam‘) and then
separation came in one moment! Moreover, how many a person
spent the night in obedience to Allah and then the sun did not
rise until he had severed his relationship with Allah! ‘The heart
is similar to the eye: not everything is seen by it; rather, [sight is]
only by the extent of the pupil. The heart is similar [to the eye in
this respect]. The fleshy organ is not what is meant [by the term
heart], but rather the subtlety that Allah has endowed man with;
and it is that which is cognisant [of matters]. Allah has made the
37. In the manuscript it reads ‘al-fana”, which is beholding Allah alone,

such that creation disappears from sight.
36
heart hang from the left side like a bucket, such that if a whim
of base desire blows on it, it moves it, and [likewise] if a pious
thought blows on it, it is moved by it. So sometimes a whimsical
thought prevails over it, and at other times a pious thought
prevails over it. This is so that He may occasionally acquaint
you with His benevolence and, at other times, familiarise you
with His overwhelming force. He makes pious thoughts prevail
over the heart when He wants to praise you; and, at other times,
He makes whimsical thoughts prevail over it so that He may
reproach you. The heart is similar to a ceiling: if a fire is lit in a
house, its fumes will rise to the ceiling and blacken it. This is also
the case with the smoke of base desire: if it develops in the body,
its smoke will rise to the heart and blacken it.
If a misguided person (ghawi) wrongs you, return to the Om-
nipotent (Qawi), and do not fear him so that he may overpower
you.
Part offaith is to witness everything

as coming from Allah ¥
The similitude of someone who witnesses harm as coming from

the creation is like that of someone who strikes a dog with a stone,
and so the dog turns towards the stone to bite it, not realising
that the stone is not the doer. In this case, such a person and the
dog are the same.
The similitude of someone who witnesses kindness [as coming]
from creation is like that of a beast: when it sees its trainer, it
waggles its tail [in happiness], yet when its master approaches,
it pays no attention to him. If you are intelligent, then witness
things as coming from Allah é, and from no one else.
The one who is truly astray is not someone lost in a jungle, but
rather he who has strayed from the path of guidance.
You seek honour from people but not from Allah, Whoever
seeks honour from people has strayed off the right track; and
af
TAj AL-‘ARUS
increases his
whoever strays off the track, his journey only
lost.
remoteness; this is the one who is truly
h will
If you say, “There is no deity except Allah,’ then Alla
do not ascribe
demand it and its right from you, which is that you
anything except to Him.
self is
The similitude of the heart if you hand it over to your
both
like that of someone who clings on to someone drowning:
hand it over to
of them drown. The similitude of the self if you
over to a
the heart is like that of someone who hands himself
one
proficient swimmer who rescues him. So do not be like the
who hands his heart over to his self. Have you seen a person with
sight who hangs onto a blind man to guide him?
sleep
If you are able to wake up in the morning and go to
at night without having wronged any slave [of Allah], then you
are felicitous. And if you do not wrong yourself in that which is
between you and Allah, then felicity is perfected for you. So close
your eyes, block your ears and beware of wronging Allah’s slaves!
Limited intellects
The similitude of you in your lack of intelligence, and not know-

ing what clothes you are wearing, is only like that of a baby whose
mother dresses him with the best and finest clothes without him
being aware. He may stain and defile them, so his mother has-
tens to him and dresses him again so that people do not see him
in that [degraded] state. She washes his dirty clothes, while he is
unaware of what is happening because of his lack of intelligence.
It has been related that Shaykh Abi al-Hasan al-Shadhili #
said, ‘It was said to me, “O ‘Ali, clean your clothes of impurities,
and you shall get help from Allah in every breath.”** So I asked,
38. In another edition it reads ‘you shall be guarded (tuhfaz) by the help
of Allah’,
38
“And what are my clothes?” The reply came, “Allah has dressed
you with the garment of gnosis, followed by the garment of
Divine Oneness, followed by the garment of love, followed by
the garment of faith, and then [finally] the garment of Islam.
Whoever knows Allah, everything else becomes insignificant
to him. Whoever loves Allah, everything else is trivial to him.
Whoever believes Allah to be One does not associate anything
with Him. Whoever believes in Allah is safe from everything.
Whoever submits himself to Allah will rarely disobey Him;
and if he does disobey Him, he apologises to Him; and if he
apologises to Him, his apology is accepted.” He said, “Then I
understood the words of the Most High, “And your garments,
purify [them]” (Qur’an 74:4].
O one who has lived yet not lived, you leave this world without
having experienced the most delightful thing therein: that is,
intimate discourse with the Real 3€, and His addressing you.
You are cast [on your bed] like a corpse at night. If you are
dragged away from Him, then seek help from Allah, and say, ‘O
angels of Allah, O messenger of my Lord, I have been deprived
of the booty which they have attained of the delight in intimate
discourse [with Allah] and pure love.’
If a slave is pretentious about his acts of obedience, arrogant
towards His creation, puffed up with pride, demanding from
others that they give him his rights in full while he does not fulfil
theirs, then a terrible ending is feared for this person. We take
refuge in Allah! Yet, if you see one who has committed acts of
disobedience crying, sad, heart-broken and humbled, falling at
the feet of the righteous and visiting them, and acknowledging
his shortcomings, then a good ending is hoped for such a person.
A guide to Allah is rare

If you look for a gari [an expert reciter of the Qur’an], you will
find a countless number; if you seek a doctor, you will find many;
39
TA] AL-‘ARUS
and if you seek ajurist, you will find a similarly large amount; but
if you were to look for someone who can guide you to Allah and
acquaint you with your blemishes, then you will only find a few. So
if you are fortunate to find one, hold on to him with both hands,
If you want to be triumphant, be in a state of utter humility.
Allah € said, ‘Allah gave you victory at Badr when you were
weak’ [Qur’an 3:123]. If you want to be given, then be in a state
of total poverty: ‘Alms are only for the poor and the destitute’
{Qur’an 9:60].
You are in the middle of a river, yet thirsty. You are with Him
in His presence, yet seek connection with Him. It is as if slaves
did not continue their journey together to the Hereafter except
by a great deal of eating and drinking. Were they told that this
[behaviour] would deliver them to the Hereafter? Look how
cheaply you view your self! Were it not contemptuous in your
eyes, you would not have exposed it to Allah’s torment 3. Yet,
how precious it is [in your estimation] when seeking this world
and amassing it! What is truly amazing is someone who asks an
astrologer about his condition, yet does not ask the Book of Allah
and the Sunnah of Allah’s Messenger % .
If you become too frail to worship, mend your worship with
weeping and pleading.
Ifyou are asked, ‘Who deserves to be cried over?” [
You should]
reply, ‘A slave who has been given good health, yet he spends it in
disobedience to Allah!’
If you sleep in a state of confusion, you will see confusion in
your dreams. Instead, you should sleep in a state of purity and
[after] repentance, so that He opens your heart with His light.
However, whoever spends his day talking idly will be forgetful of
Allah during the night.
If you see a friend of Allah #, then do not let your reverence
for him stop you from sitting before him courteously and taking
blessings from him.
40
The heavens and the earth show courtesy

to a friend of Allah (wali)
Know that the heavens and the earth show courtesy to a friend of
Allah, just as humans show courtesy to him. A person’s stupidity
is established when he rejoices at this world coming to him; but
the more foolish person is he who grieves when he is deprived of
it. Such a person is like someone to whom a snake comes to bite
which then slithers away and Allah rescues him from it, and so
he grieves over it for not having harmed him.
Your being concerned with the uncertain is a sign of heedless-
ness and lack of intelligence. [You concern yourself with] whether
something will happen or not, yet you are unconcerned about
that which will inevitably happen. You wake up in the morning
and say, ‘What will the price be tomorrow, and how will it be
this year?’ [All the time,] whilst [in this heedlessness,] Allah’s
grace comes from where you do not expect. Having doubt about
one’s provision is in reality doubt about the Provider. A thief
did not steal, and an usurper did not usurp, except their own
provision. As long as you are alive nothing will be diminished of
your provision.
You are sufficiently ignorant to be concerned with the trivial
but unconcerned about that which is important. Be concerned
about whether you will you die as a Muslim or a disbeliever. Be
concerned about whether you will be damned or felicitous. Be
concerned about the Fire, which is described as everlasting. Be
concerned about whether you will take the book [of judgement]
by the right hand or the left.** These are the matters that you
should be concerned about. Do not be concerned about the
morsel that you eat or the sip that you drink. Does a [noble] king
39. The obedient believers will take their book of deeds in their right
hands, as opposed to the unbelievers who will take it with their left. See the
Qur'an, ‘As for the one given his book in his right hand...’ (69:19).
41
TA AL-‘ARUS
employ you and not feed you? Do you find yourself in the house
of hospitality yet feel neglected [by the host}?
The most beloved of things by which Allah is obeyed is trust
in Him.
For you to be obscure in this world is better than for you to be
obscure on the Day of Resurrection.
The [following is the] quintessence of [the meaning of] one’s
life and its sieve: O the one who only eats threshed wheat, no
doubt your deeds will be threshed, such that nothing will remain
for you except that in which you were sincere, and everything
apart from that shall be discarded. What is most feared for you is
mingling with people. As if it was not enough that you listen [to
them] with your ears, but you actually join them in backbiting,
which nullifies one’s ablution and breaks one’s fast.*°
You are sufficiently ignorant to be protective over your wife
but not protective over your faith. It is treacherous that you are
protective over her for yourself, yet you are not protective over
your heart which is your Lord’s. If you were to protect that which
is yours, why do you not protect that which is your Lord’s?
If you see someone who wakes up in the morning worried
about his provision, then know that he is remote from Allah,
because if a human being, who is only created, was to tell him
not to work tomorrow because he would give him five dirhams,
then you would see that he would trust him, despite him being
an impoverished created being. So are you not satisfied with
the Rich, the Generous, the One who has guaranteed you your
sustenance throughout your lifespan?
A poet has said:
When the twentieth of Sha‘ban has passed, then continue
Drinking throughout the night and day.
40. Such actions do not literally nullify one’s fast or ablution, but rather
the reward for these acts is diminished.
42
And do not drink in small cups, for time has become too
Constricted for [drinking in] small [cups].
The meaning ofit, according to him, is that when the twentieth

of Sha‘ban has passed, then Ramadan, which will end our
drinking [during the day], is imminent. Its meaning according to
the people of the spiritual path is that when you have left behind
forty years, then continually do righteous actions night and day,
because the time has come close to [your] meeting Allah %;
and your deeds are not like that of a young person who has not
wasted his youth and vigour like you did.
Suppose you want to be assiduous, but your strength does not
assist you; in that case, you must do righteous deeds according to
your state and mend the rest with the remembrance [of Allah],
because there is nothing easier than the latter: it is possible for you
while standing, sitting, reclining and when sick. The Messenger of
Allah 3 said, ‘Let your tongue be moist with the remembrance of
Allah.*! Remain persistent with whichever invocation or formula
of remembrance is easy for you, because its succour comes from
Allah 3. You were only able to remember Him through His
benevolence [to you]; and you did not turn away from Him
except by His overwhelming force and dominance. Therefore,
work and strive, because being oblivious in one’s works is better
than being totally devoid [of them].”
41. AlLTirmidhi narrated it (3375) and graded it as authentic (hasan) with

the wording, ‘Verily, a man said, “O Messenger of Allah, the laws of Islam
have become too much for me, so inform me of something that I can adhere
to.” He replied, “Let your tongue remain moist with the remembrance of
Allah 4%.”
42. The author says in aphorism 48 of his Hikam, “Do not forsake remem-
brance [of Allah] due to your lack of presence with Allah therein, because
your obliviousness from His remembrance is worse than your obliviousness
during His remembrance.’
43
TAj AL-‘ARUS
Your state appears to be of those abstinent in [seeking Allah’s]

bounty; that is because a seeker does not cease knocking on
case,
doors; rather, you find him ever standing at them. In such a
he is like a mother whose child has died: do you see her attending
weddings, celebrations and festivities? On the contrary, she is
preoccupied with the loss of her child.
How often does the Master send you His bounties, yet you
behave like a fugitive slave, such that your similitude is like that
of a baby in a cot: whenever he is rocked, he falls asleep. Ifa king
was to send you a gift, you would not wake up in the morning
except at his door. So take advantage of time [that allows] for
acts of obedience and be steadfast therein.
If you seek to disobey Him, look for a place in which no one
sees you, and look for strength to disobey Him from someone
else. You will not be able to do so, because everything is from His
blessings. Do you take His blessings and disobey Him through
them? Nay, you have become seasoned in your violations [of
Allah’s commandments]: sometimes by backbiting, sometimes
by tale-bearing and at other times by looking [at the unlawful];
that which you have built over seventy years you demolish in
one breath.
O destroyer of acts of obedience, Allah did not afflict you with
poverty and need except for you to resort to Him and for you
to devote yourself to Him. O you who drowns himself in base
desires and acts of disobedience, if only you gave it [i.e. your
self] that which is from the lawful. How can you not love Him
when you treat Him with ignobility, while He treats you with
benevolence? How can you not love Him who treats you with
benevolence, while you treat Him callously?
No one accompanies you to benefit you; everyone who accom-
panies you only does so for himself. Your wife only loves you
in order to reap from you the good things in life and clothing.
This is also true of your child, for he says, ‘I support myself
44
through you’; and then when you grow old and no longer have
any strength, not even a residue,” they discard you!
If you were to dissociate yourself from creation, Allah 3
would open for you the door to intimacy with Him, because
Allah’s friends have subdued themselves through solitude and
isolation. Thereafter, they heard from Allah and found intimacy
with Him. So if you wish to extract the mirror of your heart
from sludge, refuse what they have refused: the enjoyment of
intimacy with creation and gossip. Furthermore, do not sit at
the gates of neighbourhoods, because whoever prepares himself
will attain support. If you were facilitated in preparing yourself,
then the door to seeking succour would have been opened for
you. Whoever knows how to correctly knock on the door, it will
be opened for him. Many a seeker did not know how to correctly
knock on the door and thus was refused [entry] because of his
poor manners, and so it was not opened for him.
Slaves are vulnerable to falling flat on their faces due to their
lack of silence. Had you drawn near to Allah,** you would have
always heard Him addressing [you],* in your market and in your
house. Whoever wakes up will witness; and whoever falls asleep,
the ears of his heart will not hear and his insight will not witness;
but the veil is draped [for those who seek to witness].*°
43. In another edition it reads ‘bughyah [objective or use]’ instead of

“bagiyyah[residue]’.
44, In another edition it reads ‘if you had fled to Allah’.
45. [SM] That is, He would send His inspirations (waridat) to your heart
so as to direct you to His Oneness; and these are internal inspirations that
directly enter the hearts, as opposed to external inspirations that occur on the
tongues of creation whereby one understands from Allah.
46. [SM] In other words, the veil does not exist, as the Real is not veiled;
rather, the veil only exists in the slave’s imagination. Therefore, it is his
imagination that veils him from the Real, and so if he was to raise the illusion
of there being anything [independently] existent alongside the Real, then the
veil would be lifted.
45
TAj AL-‘ARUS
If the slaves [of Allah] were astute, they would not have
devoted themselves to other than Allah, nor would they have
sat in front of other than Him. And neither would they have
sought judgement (fatwa) from other than Him, due to his words
4, ‘Seek judgement from your heart, even if they issue you a
legal judgement [in its favour].’ Because inspired thoughts*’ come
from Allah 3¢, so they are in conformity [with Allah’s pleasure],
whereas the legal expert [mujli] may err. The heart is not prone
to error; but this [ability to understand reality] is exclusively for
pure hearts. Only a [true] scholar is sought for legal judgement,
as for the one who [appears to be a scholar but] is oblivious of
Allah 3€, then he has no knowledge.
The miracles of the Prophet’s % Companions &
They [the Companions] 4 would not embark upon anything

for the sake of their selves; rather, [they would act] for Allah
and with [the help of] Allah. The distance between the friends
of Allah and the Companions [of the Prophet 38] has grown
remote, so the miracles [that are bestowed upon the friends of
Allah] have been given as a consolation for their lack of complete
emulation [of the Prophet 3]. Some people say, “The friends of
Allah have been blessed with miracles, while the Companions
were not.’ On the contrary, the latter received tremendous
miracles by virtue of their accompanying him % . Indeed what
miracle is greater than it?
The beneficial prayer
Know that any [outwardly performed] prayer that does not

thereafter restrain its performer from indecency, and repre-
hensible words and deeds, is not called a prayer because of His
words 4 , ‘Verily, prayer restrains from indecency and vile deeds
47, In another edition it reads ‘divine thoughts’.
46
(munkar)’ [Qur'an 29:45]. You come out of the prayer and your
intimate discourse with the Real 8 with His words 4¢, ‘It is You
that we worship, and it is You from whom we seek help’ [Qur’an
1:5]; and [you come out of] your intimate discourse with the
Messenger 4 with your words, ‘Peace be upon you, O Prophet,
and the mercy of Allah and His blessings’; and this is in every
prayer. Then you leave [the prayer] to commit sins after having
these blessings bestowed upon you by Allah?
Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili # relates that the Islamic
jurists (fugaha’) of Alexandria and its judge would come to him.
One day, they came to test the Shaykh, and he sensed [tafarrasa]
that in them. Thereupon he said, “O jurists, O jurists! Have you
ever prayed?’ They replied, ‘O Shaykh, does anyone of us miss
prayer?’ He replied to them, ‘Allah 3 said, “Indeed, man was
created anxious; fretful when afflicted by evil, and niggardly
when he receives some good, except those who pray” [Qur’an
70:19—22}. When anything harmful afflicts you, do you not
panic? If some good comes your way, do you not withhold it?’
They were speechless. The Shaykh then said to them, ‘Have you
never performed this type of prayer?’
If He graces you with the ability to repent and you subsequently
repent to Him, then that is out of His grace 36. You commit
sins for seventy years and then, when you repent to Him, in one
breath He erases everything you had done in that period [before
repentance]. [It has been narrated] ‘Whoever repents from a
sin is like someone who has not sinned.’ Whenever a believer
remembers his sin, he is saddened; and whenever he remembers
his acts of obedience, he is elated.
Luqman the Sage said, ‘A believer has two hearts: one with
which he hopes, and the other with which he fears. He hopes for
his deeds to be accepted and fears that they may not be accepted.
If the fear of a believer and his hope were to be weighed, they
would be in a state of equilibrium.’
47
TAy AL-‘ARUS
Whoever wants to be totally absorbed in Allah, then he should

discharge Allah’s commandments.
If you realise that your wife has been unfaithful, you will be
infuriated with her. Similarly, your self has been unfaithful to you
throughout your life. Intelligent people unanimously agree that if
a wife is unfaithful, then her husband does not accommodate her
but rather divorces her; so divorce your self.
The reasons for entry into Paradise

and the Hellfire
The Messenger of Allah 4% was asked, ‘What is the main reason

for people entering Paradise?’ He % replied, ‘God-consciousness
(tagwa) and good character.’ Whereupon he was asked, ‘So what
is the main reason for people entering the Fire?’ He % replied,
‘The two cavities: the mouth and the genitalia.’ Therefore, wash
your heart with remorse for what Allah 3 has deprived you.
They were wrong — by Allah ~ in holding assemblies of women
to lament over their wives and husbands, parents and children.
Instead, they should have rightly held assemblies of women to
lament over their hearts lacking God-consciousness.
Do you laugh out loud as if you have passed over the bridge
(sirat) [on the Day of Resurrection] and have crossed over the fires?
If you do not have scrupulousness before Allah that deters
you from committing acts of disobedience to Allah when you
are alone, then throw soil over your head. This is because he 3
said, ‘Whoever has no scrupulousness that deters him from acts
of disobedience to Allah when he is alone, then Allah does not
care for his works.’
There is nothing that will disgrace you on the Day of Resur-
rection like a dirham you spent on something unlawful.”
48. In another edition it reads ‘There is nothing that will benefit you on
the Day of Resurrection like a dirham that you spent on something lawful’.
48
It is not important that someone is nice to you when you agree

with him; but, rather, what is [really] important is that someone
is nice to you when you differ with him.
The deficiency is in you and so is the veil
It is greatly feared that you will commit incessant sins whereby

He beguiles you and empowers you to do them. Allah 3 said,
‘We shall beguile them from where they do not know’ [Qur’an
68:44].
If He cares for you, then a small amount will suffice you; but
if He does not care for you, then a large amount [of anything]
will not avail you.
If the veil was lifted for you, you would have seen everything
glorifying (tasbih) Allah 3@. However, the deficiency is in you, and
the veil is from you.
How protective you are over your body, yet how cheap your
religion is to you! If you were told, “This food is poisoned,’ you
would refrain from [eating] it. Furthermore, if someone else was
to swear that it is not poisoned on an oath to divorce his wife [if
he was lying], you would still refrain from it. Rather, even if you
were to repeatedly wash the utensil in which it is in, you would
still be repulsed by it. So why are you not like that with regard
to your religion?
How many more favours Allah has over you than your
mother! When she takes you as a baby, she dresses you in the
finest clothes; and if you defile them, she will change them
immediately. Yet you come to an embellished kingdom, wherein
there is not a space of a hand span except that it is fit to prostrate
on, and you ruin your clothes and defile them with disobedience.
Your deeds are such: beautiful ornaments are manifested before
you, and you defile them with acts of disobedience!
Not everyone who has accompanied the great ones was guided
by accompanying them. So do not consider the accompanying of
49
TA] AL-‘ARUS
shaykhs to be a pretext for your feeling safe and secure. Whoever

is duped with regard to Allah has disobeyed Him; that is because
you have assured yourself safety from His punishment. Just as
an ignoramus says, ‘I have accompanied my master [sayyidi] So-
and-so, and I have seen my master So-and-so,’ and they make
claims: all of them untrue and false. Instead, their accompanying
the shaykhs should have increased them in fear and dread, for
the Companions accompanied the Messenger of Allah 38 and, as
a result, they were the most fearful and terrified.
It may be that affluence is a cause for one to turn away [from
Allah] and poverty a cause for devotion [to Allah], because
poverty compels one to beseech Allah. Therefore, poverty that
causes you to be devoted to Allah is better than affluence which
severs you from Him.
Just as you have been commanded to avoid acts of disobedience,
you have also been commanded to avoid someone disobedient
[to Allah], whilst privately praying for him. People, today, are the
opposite. How likely is it that your fasts and prayers will be of any
benefit to you when you malign your Muslim brother?
Renewal offaith
He % said, ‘Renew your faith with the words “There is no god

except Allah”. This demonstrates that one is subjected to the dust
of disobedience and the filth of opposition [to Him], and that not
every impurity is purified by water. In fact, many an impurity
is only purified by fire, just like gold when there is impurity in
it. Likewise the disobedient from this nation are not fit to enter
Paradise until they are purified by the Fire.
No one is to be envied except a slave who has been wrapped
in the garment of God-consciousness. This is the real life, and
what a fine life it is for the lover with the Beloved when no one is
observing him! If he wants someone to observe him, then he is
not genuine in his love. If anyone wants others to be aware of his
state, then [know that] he has been deceived.
50
Do not be like worldly-minded people whom the world has

divorced. Rather, be from amongst those who have divorced
it and detached themselves from it before their separation. If
you prefer this world over the Hereafter, then you are similar
to someone who has two wives: one of them is an unfaithful old
woman, and the other a faithful young woman — if you prefer
an unfaithful old woman over a faithful young woman, then
are you not a fool?
He may sometimes ordain for you to commit a sin in order to
rid you of pride and conceit, for it has been related, ‘Many a sin
has caused its perpetrator to enter Paradise.*° A man can pray
two cycles of prayer and then depend and rely on them, and is
conceited about them — this is a good deed encompassed by bad
deeds. In contrast, there can be another person who commits
an act of disobedience which engenders in him humility and
brokenness, and makes him forever abased and needy ~ this is a
bad deed encompassed by good deeds.
You are sufficiently ignorant to pay attention to someone else’s
minor offence while ignoring your own major offence.
Do not criticise people according to the ostensive [mandates]
of the Sacred Law (Shariah) nor condemn them. If people today
were to be charged to undertake what the Companions and the
early righteous community were charged with, then they would
not be able to bear it, because those [i.e. the Companions and early
Muslim community] were Allah’s proofs over His creation.”
49. The author says in his Hikam, ‘Many an act of disobedience that
has bequeathed humiliation and impoverishment is better than an act of
obedience that has bequeathed haughtiness and arrogance.’
50. [SM] The condition of people today varies from those of the
Companions #&, since the good deeds of the righteous (hasanat al-abrar)
are the bad deeds of those intimate with Allah (sayyi’at al-mugarrabin). This
is why Aba Sa‘id al-Khudri said to some of the tabi‘in [the followers of the
Compnaions], ‘You do deeds that are finer [i.e. insignificant] in your eyes
than hair, which we would consider during the Messenger of Allah’s time %
51
TAj AL-‘ARUS
The people of insight see this world (dunya)”' as a carcass in

which dogs have stuck their noses. Tell me, if a man was to dip
his mouth into a carcass, would you not consider him despicable?
If the Real 4 has established a scale for buying and selling, then
has He not established a scale for [weighing] realities?
Someone whose feet are impure is not fit for his heart’s presence
[with Allah], so what about the one whose mouth is impure?
Whoever proves to be treacherous is humiliated. ‘The value of
a hand is five hundred dinars,* but if it proves to be treacherous,
then it is amputated for the sake of a quarter of a dinar. Whoever
dares to commit a minor sin falls into a major one.
Know the hidden motives of your lower self and do not trust
it. If it tells you to visit So-and-so, then [fear that] maybe you
will be going to a blazing fire, deliberately casting yourself
therein. These [times] are only times for socialising; rarely do
you sit amongst people without disobeying Allah therein. This
is why many of the early Muslims preferred to sit in their homes
and left the congregational prayer. If your self demands you
to go out, then busy it at home with some act of obedience,
as being from the destructive sins (mibigat).’ Accordingly, one needs to treat
people according to their potential; so we don’t condemn them for falling into
a sub-optimal (khilaf al-awla) or disliked (makrih) action in the same manner
as we would condemn them for falling into the unlawful (haram), as this is
something which should be condemned. We therefore judge [others] with
leniency and dispensation (rukhsah), while holding ourselves accountable with
severity and stringency (‘azimah).
51. In another edition it reads ‘a sin (a/-dhanb) instead of ‘this world (al-
dunya)’.
52. The prescribed legal punishment (hadd) of amputation of a thief’s
hand is subject to stringent conditions for the theft of something to the value
of quarter of a dinar. There is, however, a difference of opinion amongst the
jurists with regards to the details of this ruling. But the value of the hand, in
terms of its indemnity, if someone cut or paralysed someone else’s hand, is five
hundred dinars,
52
The Refinemtent ofSouls
because backbiting is worse than thirty adulteries in Islam.

Dogs, however, do not sleep in high-walled villas®? but instead
sleep on rubbish heaps.
Whoever wants to look at the similitude of hearts, then let
him look at dwellings where [one finds that] there is a house that
js inhabited, and another that is in ruins, such that the latter
remains a place for people to use as a lavatory. Likewise there is
a heart like a prosperous shop, and a heart like a shop in ruins.
Whoever is honest with Allah,

He will guard him against harm from his enemies
You will not be purified** until you attend to Allah [as He is

entitled to servitude over one’s lower self]. Therefore, donate
some charity every day, even if it is with a quarter of a dirham
or a morsel, so that Allah may record your name in the register
of the charitable. Moreover, recite a portion of the Qur’an every
day, even if it is one verse, so that Allah may record your name
in the register of the Qur’an reciters. Then pray during the night,
even if it is only two cycles, so that Allah may record your name
with those who stand for prayer. Do not err and say, “Whoever
has just enough food for each day, how can he be expected
to donate charity?’ Allah 4 said, ‘Let the rich spend of their
wealth, and whoever’s wealth is constricted for him, then let him
spend some of what Allah has given him’ [Qur’an 65:7]. The
poor person who is given charity is like a mount that carries your
provisions to the Hereafter.
Whoever wants [to reach] the advanced stages [of the spiritual
path], let him rectify the preliminary stages.
Whoever is honest with Allah, Allah will protect him against
harm from his enemies and will relieve him of the need for
ee oo
53. In another edition it reads ‘do not sleep on walls’.
54. In another edition it reads ‘your sun shall appear’.
53
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
aides,®® because the one who is in need of creation is utterly

humiliated.
Do you think that medicine is sweet?®® If you do not force it
down, you will not be cured. So force repentance down yourself
and do not let the sweetness of disobedience prevail over you. If
you perceive yourself craving a base desire, then flee to Allah
and seek help from Him, for He will rescue you from it.
Instead of saying, ‘Where are the people of khatwa?*’ Where
are the friends [of Allah]? Where are the real men?’ [You should]
say, “Where is the insight?’ Is someone smeared with faeces fit to
see the sultan’s daughter?
It has been related that Shaykh Makin al-Din al-Asmar
said, ‘I was in Alexandria when suddenly I saw a sun that had
risen alongside the sun. I was amazed at that, so I came close
to it and lo and behold it was a young boy whose sideburns had
grown. His light prevailed over the light of the sun. I greeted him,
so he replied to my greeting of peace. Then I asked him, “Where
are you from?” He replied, “I performed the dawn prayer (fajr) at
Masjid al-Aqga in Jerusalem, and I will perform the noon prayer
(zuhr) with you, the late afternoon prayer (‘asr) in Mecca and the
sunset prayer (maghrib) in Medina!” So I asked him, “Will you be
my guest?” He replied, “That is not possible.” He then bade me
farewell and departed.’
Whoever honours a believer, it is as if he has honoured Allah.
Yet, whoever hurts a believer, it is as if he has hurt his leader
and master. So beware of hurting a believer, for your self is
filled with its own faults, and they are enough for you to be
concerned about.
55. In another edition it reads ‘Allah will protect him against the harm
from [making] claim and relieve him of the burden of ailments’.
56. In another edition it reads ‘a sweet dish that you consume’.
57. These are Allah’s friends who have been given the ability to
miraculously travel long distances within moments where their steps are the
distance of their sight.
54
You are similar to an onion: when it is peeled, it emerges

all as shells.** If you want to purify water, you cut off defiling
elements from it. Your limbs are like rivulets that flow to the
heart. So beware of irrigating your heart with bad water, such
as backbiting, talebearing and obscene speech, looking at that
which is unlawful and so forth, because the heart is not veiled by
that which emerges from it; rather, it is only veiled by that which
is resident therein. ‘Thus, the illumination of the heart is by
consuming the lawful, engaging in the remembrance of Allah,
reciting the Qur’an and guarding it from looking at the lawful,
disliked and unlawful created beings. ‘Therefore, do not let loose
the hunter of your sight except fon a mission] to increase in
knowledge or wisdom. Instead of saying, “This mirror is covered
with rust,’ say, “There is inflammation in my eyes.’
You have love for leadership, fame and so on, yet you say, “The
shaykh does not capture our hearts.’ [Instead you should] say,
‘The obstacle is from me.’
If you were prepared on the first day, then you would not have
needed to attend a second session. You only needed continual
repetition because of the solidity of the rust over your heart, so
that each session served as a polish.
You need to seek all of your needs from your Master and leave
those who cannot benefit others.
Make definite your despair of creation,* and direct your hopes
towards the True King, and look at the state of your deeds and
58. [SM] The author makes the comparison between an onion and a
person’s lower self: just as an onion is all layers, and if you want to get rid of
the onion, then you rid it of its layers. Likewise, the self is full of blameworthy
traits, so if you want to get rid of the blameworthy traits, you need to get rid
of your lower self; as Imam al-Rifa‘i said, ‘Leave your self and come,’ and
Shaykh Arsalan al-Dimashdi said, ‘All of you is hidden polytheism (shirk) and
the Divine Oneness will not be made clear to you until you leave your self.’
59. Ahmad narrated (23540) with an authentic chain of transmission
on the authority of Abii Ayyiib al-Ansari % that he said, ‘A man came to
55
TA] AL-‘ARUS
how He has treated you from the beginning of your childhood.

He has only treated you with generosity and kindness. Then look
at how you have treated Him, and you will only find insolence
and disobedience.
How frequently you befriend creation, yet how seldom you
seek to befriend Allah!
Allah is the king, you are the shepherd

and your limbs are your sheep
Your limbs are your sheep, your heart® is the shepherd, and
Allah is the King. Ifyou graze them in a fertile pasture until you
have pleased the King, then you deserve His approval. But if, on
the other hand, you graze them in unwholesome pasture until
most of them become frail and feeble, and then a wolf comes and
devours some of them, then you deserve to be punished by the
King. If He wishes, He exacts His retribution from you; and if
He wishes, He pardons you. Hence, your limbs are either doors
to Paradise or doors to the Fire.®' If you utilise them for that
which is pleasing to Him, then you are walking progressively on
the path to Paradise, otherwise you are walking progressively
on the path to the Fire. These are the scales of wisdom, so
weigh with them your intelligence just as you weigh with them
tangible things. If you want to know how to cross the bridge {on
the Day of Resurrection], then look at your state in hastening to
the mosques. The recompense for someone who comes to the
the Prophet % and said, “Admonish me and be brief.” So he replied, “When

you stand to perform your prayer, then perform the prayer of someone
bidding farewell; and do not say something for which you need to apologise;
and completely despair of what is in people’s hands [i.e. their wealth and
possessions].””
60. In another edition it reads ‘you are the shepherd’.
61. In another edition it reads ‘either reward to Paradise, or either your
punishment to Hellfire’.
56
mosque before the call for prayer [adhan] is that he will cross
the bridge like a flash of lightning; whereas someone who comes
at the beginning of the [prayer] time shall pass over it like a
racehorse.
The path of uprightness is not perceived by the eyes but rather
by the hearts. Allah % said, ‘And this is My path, which is
straight, so follow it’ [(Qur’an 6:153]. He did not point [with His
word this] except to something that exists. So for whomsoever
the path is illuminated, he should follow it, and for whomsoever
the path is dark, he will not perceive it and will therefore remain
perplexed. If you have given free rein to your hearing, sight
and tongue during your life, then restrain now what you have
let loose. The Messenger of Allah # said, “The poor believers
will enter Paradise five hundred years before the wealthy.’ That
is because they outstripped [others] in this world with acts of
worship, whereas you miss the congregational prayer and pray
alone; and when you do perform it, you do so like the pecking
of a cockerel. Should the gifts given to kings be anything other
than the finest and most carefully selected? The poor only
outstripped [others] to Paradise because they outstripped others
in serving the Master in this world. What is meant by the poor
here are those who are patient with the bitterness of poverty,
such that one of them rejoices at adversity just as you rejoice at
prosperity. Therefore, the poor entering Paradise before the rich
demonstrates their patience with poverty.
You are sufficiently ignorant to frequent creation and leave the
door of the Creator! You have committed every act of disobedi-
ence under the sun, so are you not saddened at your state?
The manner of keeping company
It is truly amazing that a slave who is avid in accompanying his

lower self, while only evil comes from it, will at the same time for-
sake accompanying Allah, while only goodness comes from Him.
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TAy AL-‘ARUS
If it is said, ‘How does one accompany Allah?’ then know that

accompanying anything is relative to that thing: accompanying
Allah 3 is by complying with His commandments and avoiding
His prohibitions; accompanying the two angels is by dictating
to them good deeds; accompanying the Book and the Sunnah
is by acting in accordance with them; accompanying the skies
is by reflecting over them; and accompanying the earth is by
pondering over what is on it.
It is not from the necessary consequences of accompanying
[something or someone] that one be on an equal rank {with
it]. The meaning of accompanying Allah is accompanying His
favours and blessings. So whoever accompanies blessings with
gratitude, accompanies tribulations with patience, accompanies
[His] commandments with compliance, [accompanies] His
prohibitions with avoidance and obedience with sincerity, then
he has truly accompanied Allah 3. Then, when companionship
is strengthened, it turns to intimate friendship.
Beware of saying that goodness has disappeared and its rug
has been rolled up. We do not want someone to cause people
to despair of Allah’s mercy and render them hopeless of Him
4 , for [it is mentioned] in the Psalms of Dawud (upon him and
our Prophet be the best of blessings and salutations), “I am most
merciful to My slave when he turns away from Me: since many
an obedient person has been destroyed by conceit, and many a
sinner was forgiven because of his heartbreak [over his sins].’
It has been related that Shaykh Makin al-Din al-Asmar said,
‘J saw in Alexandria a slave with his master, and over them there
was a flag which had covered that which is between the sky and
the earth. I said (to myself], “Does this flag belong to the master
or the slave?” I decided to follow them until his master bought
him a need of his and left him. Then when the slave disappeared,
the flag disappeared with him, so I realised that he was one of
the friends of Allah 3. I went over to his master and said to him,
“Will you sell me this slave?” He replied, “Why?” He persisted
58
fin wanting to know the reason for my interest] until Imentioned

to him the affair of his slave. He then said to me, “O my master,
what you are seeking, I am more in need of it.”* He then set him
free. He [i.e. the slave] was a great friend of Allah’
There are amongst them those who know the friends of Allah
by smelling without the presence of perfume, and amongst
them those who know them by tasting: when he sees a friend of
Allah, he can taste sweetness in his mouth, and whenever he sees
someone who is severed [from Allah], he can taste bitterness in
his mouth.
Whoever does not forsake the unlawful things, his undertaking
the necessary duties will be of no avail to him. Whoever does not
take preventative measures, then medicine is of no benefit to him.
How little is the blessing in wealth which falls in the hands of
plunderers! Understand this — by Allah — the lives of the heedless
are plundered.
The similitude of this world is like that of a decrepit old leper
woman who is concealed by a silk dress. A believer is repulsed
and repulses others from her because of her exposing herself
before him. No one has worn a garment more foul than the
garment of claim, such that he says during an argument, ‘Are
you like me? Are you worthy of speaking to me? Are you worthy
of me speaking to you!’ The first to be destroyed by this was
Iblis. Beware of this, even if he [who is speaking to you] is a
lame scabby leper; do not despise him, because of the sanctity of
‘There is no god except Allah’ that is in his heart. Give everyone
the benefit of doubt, and you shall be successful.
Do you think that good character is for a person to be
amicable and from the most generous of people, yet to be
62. [SM] In other words, you want to buy him so that you may free him,
but I am more entitled to him than you after you have acquainted me with
his reality and I have now realised his worth, so how can I sell him to you?
Therefore, I will be the one to free him.
59
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
neglectful of the rights of Allah 3? This is not good character.

On the contrary, a slave is not praised with having good
character until he undertakes the rights of Allah % , implements
His rulings, surrenders to Allah’s commandments and avoids
His prohibitions. Whoever therefore restrains himself from
committing acts of disobedience to Allah and fulfils Allah’s
rights is of good character.
Allah has not compelled the tongues of the slaves against
you except for you to return to Him. Do you not see that you
continue to be valuable in Allah’s sight until you disobey [Him].
Then when you disobey [Him], you become worthless.
The reality of God-consciousness (taqwa)
God-consciousness is to forsake disobedience to Allah when no

one sees you.
When the Prophet ¥ used to drink water, he would say, ‘All
praise is due to Allah who has made it fresh and sweet out of His
mercy and did not make it saline and hot due to our sins.’ He
is immune from committing sins, but [he said it] out of humility
and to teach [us]. It was possible for him to say, “Due to your sins.’
He # did not eat or drink except to teach us the correct etiquette,
because he # used to be fed and given drink. A gnostic tilts his
head downwards when he drinks— and maybe his eyes shed tears—
and says, “This is affection from Allah 3,
Some of them would not leave home for the congregational
prayer because of what they were exposed to en route; amongst
them was Malik ibn Anas # . That is because the congregational
prayer is profit, and profit is only accounted for after complete
coverage of the capital.
63. Al-Bukhari (1762) and Muslim (1104) narrated that he # said, ‘Verily,
I am not like you; I spend the night with One who feeds me and gives me
drink.’ In the narration of Muslim it reads, ‘Verily, my Lord feeds me and
gives me drink,’
60
Do not think that predators are [only found] in jungles. On

the contrary, there are predators in the markets and streets, and
they are those things which tear up the hearts.
The similitude of someone who constantly commits sins and
seeks forgiveness is like someone who constantly drinks poison
and takes its antidote. He should be told, “There may come an
occasion when you are unable to get to the antidote [in time] and
thus death will seize you by surprise before you can get to it.’
Whoever has a diseased heart is deprived of wearing the
garment of God-consciousness. If your heart was not corrupted
with the disease of caprice and base desires, you would have
been able to bear the burdens of God-consciousness. Whoever
does not taste the sweetness of obedience, it indicates that there
is a disease in his heart due to base desires. Allah has called base
desires a disease in His words 3% , ‘So the one who has a disease
in his heart covets’ [Qur’an 33:32]. You have two methods in
treating it: utilising that which is beneficial for you, namely
acts of obedience; and avoiding that which is harmful to you,
namely acts of disobedience. If you commit a sin and follow
it up with repentance, remorse, heartbreak and penitence [to
Allah], then that will be a means for your reuniting with Him.
But if you do an act of obedience and follow it up with conceit
and arrogance, then that will be a means for your severance
from Him.
How strange it is that you want to improve your heart, yet your
limbs do whatever unlawful actions they want, such as gazing [at
the unlawful], backbiting, talebearing and so forth! Hence, your
similitude is like that of someone who treats himself with poison
or someone who wants to clean his garment with soot.
The necessity of isolating and secluding yourself
You need to seclude and isolate yourself. Whoever adopts

solitude as a habit, he shall attain honour. Then, whosoever’s
61
TA] AL-‘ARUS
solitude is genuine, he shall attain gifts from the Real as favours,

Its signs are:
1. the uncovering of the veil;

2. revitalisation of the heart;
3. and the realisation of love.
Therefore, you should be concerned with the quality of your

deeds and not their quantity. The similitude of many deeds
lacking quality is like that of many cheap clothes; and the
similitude of a few deeds of good quality is like that of a few
valuable clothes. [Thus a few good deeds of a high quality are]
just like an emerald: small in size but invaluable. Thus whoever
occupies his heart with Allah, and treats its caprices, is better
than someone who performs many prayers and fasts [whilst
inattentive].
The similitude of someone who performs the prayer without
presence of heart is like someone who gives a king a hundred
empty boxes as a gift; [in reality,] he deserves to be punished
by the king. As for someone who performs it with presence of
heart, then he is like someone who gives the king a ruby worth
a thousand dinars as a gift: the king will always remember him
[fondly] for it.
The person praying ts intimately conversing

with Allah and His Messenger ¥
When you enter the prayer, you are intimately conversing with
Allah % and speaking to His Messenger #, because you say,
‘Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and Allah’s mercy and His
blessings,’ and it is not said, ‘O So-and-so, according to the
Arabs except to someone who is present.
Two cycles of prayer at night are better than a thousand
during the day. You will not perform two cycles of prayer during
it except you will find them in your scale [of good deeds]. Is a
62
slave purchased for any purpose other than to serve? Have you
seen a slave who is bought to eat and sleep? You are nothing but
a slave who has been purchased. Allah 8€ said, ‘Indeed, Allah
has purchased from the believers themselves and their wealth in
exchange for Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah, and so they
kill and are killed’ [Qur’an 9:111}.
Whoever does not compel his self, it will latch on to him; and
whoever does not demand from it, it will demand from him. If
you burden it with acts of obedience, it will not demand acts of
disobedience from you nor will it find an opportunity to commit
them. Have you seen the righteous and the devotees spectating
at festivities? Whoever occupies his self with the lawful things
and amusement will be preoccupied from standing at night [in
prayer], and so it will be said to him, “You have occupied yourself
away from Us, so We will occupy you from worshipping Us.’
Two cycles of prayer in the middle of the night are heavier for
you than the mountain of Uhud. Limbs that have dried up from
performing acts of obedience are only fit for severance; for a tree,
when it dries up, is only fit for the fire.
Whoever loves this world with his heart is like someone who
has built a beautiful building above which is a toilet that leaks on
it and continues to do so until its exterior appears the same as its
interior. Amongst them there are those who clean it so that his
heart remains white. Its cleansing is by repentance, invocations
(adhkar), remorse and seeking forgiveness. Similarly, you are in
Allah’s proximity (hadrah), defiled by your disobedience [to Him}:
you consume the unlawful and look at the unlawful. Whoever
commits violations and [submits to] base desires, his heart is
darkened. If you do not repent while you are healthy, He may
afflict you with ailments and calamities so that you may be
purified from all sins, just like a washed garment. Therefore,
SS
64. In another edition it reads ‘do you purchase a slave’.
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TAJ AL-‘ARUS
polish the mirror of your heart with solitude and remembrance

until you meet Allah 3. Let it be a single formula of remembrance
[that you concentrate on], so that the lights may emanate from
within you. Do not be like someone who wants to dig a well, and
so he digs an arm’s length here and an arm’s length there such
that no water ever springs forth for him. Instead, dig in a single
place so that water may spring forth for you.
O slave of Allah, your religion is your capital; if you lose it,
you have lost your capital. Therefore, busy your tongue with His
remembrance, your heart with His love and your limbs in His
service, and cultivate your existence until the seed [of true faith]
appears and thus grows. Whoever treats his heart in the way a
farmer treats his land, his heart will be illuminated.
The similitude [of the spiritual path] is like that of two men
who bought equally proportionate land. One of them took it
and cleared it of thorns and grass, irrigated it with water and
sowed its seeds until they grew; he harvested and benefited from
it. This person is like someone who grew up in obedience [to
Allah], such that the lights of his heart have illuminated. As for
the other person, he neglected it until thorns and grass grew on it
and it thus remained a shelter for snakes and lizards; this person
is someone whose heart became dark by acts of disobedience.
If you attend a gathering [of remembrance or admonishment]
and leave to commit violations and acts of heedlessness, then be-
ware of saying, ‘How does my attendance benefit me?’ Rath-
er, [you must simply continue to] attend; you may have had a
[spiritual] disease for forty years, so do you expect it to disappear
from you in a moment or in a day? This case is similar to that of
sand that has been thrown in one place for forty years; do you ex-
pect it to disappear in a moment or in a day? Whoever commits
acts of disobedience and tosses and turns in unlawful activity
es
65. In another edition it reads ‘let your heart make remembrance’.
64
will not be purified, even if he was immersed in the seven oceans,

until he resolves to repent to Allah.
The outer and inner major ritual

impurity (janabah)
The outer [body] is subject to major ritual impurity (janabah)

which bars you from entering His house [i.e. the mosque] and
reciting His Book. The inner is also subject to major ritual
impurity (janabah) which bars you from entering His proximity
and understanding His speech; and it is heedlessness.
If your lower self demands base desires, then bridal it with the
bridal of the Sacred Law. It is like a beast which inclines towards
someone else’s crops. So lower the gaze from its inclination
towards delights and [lower] the heart from its inclination
towards base desires, and let your heart be constantly vitalised.
The Real 3€ chose for His proximity those who are worthy of it.
As for those who are unworthy, He has cast them to the creation.
Their similitude is like that of slaves who were presented before
the king: whomsoever the king keeps [for Himself] is honoured,
and whoever is unworthy is left for the subjects {of the king].
You have not gone to a place of wisdom or disobedience except
there was either a luminous chain on your neck or a dark one. If
you do not perceive of it, then [know that] others do. Do you not
see that the sun is witnessed by everyone except the blind?
What is the benefit of knowledge other than to act in
accordance with it? Its similitude is like that of a king who wrote
a letter to his deputy on the frontier — what is the purpose of the
letter? For it to only be read? [Rather,] its purpose is only for you
to act according to it.
LL
66. In another edition it reads ‘then close your eyes’.
65
TAy AL-‘ARUS
Insight and wandering about aimlessly
A person who busies himself with seeking knowledge (‘t/m),®’ yet

does not have insight, is like a hundred thousand blind men who
travel on a road utterly confused [about the way]. If there had
been amongst them a one-eyed person, all of the people would
have followed him and left the hundred thousand blind men
behind.
The scholar who does not act in accordance with his
knowledge is like a candle that gives light to people by burning
itself.
[If one has] knowledge but is heedless of Allah, then ignorance
is better [for such a person]. Whosoever’s limbs bear fruit, then
his heart has given rain to its tongue by remembrance, to his eyes
by closing [them], to his ears by listening to knowledge and to his
hands and feet by hastening towards good.
Whoever frequently sits with the people of this age has ex-
posed himself to disobeying Allah 4. In such a case, he will be
similar to someone who puts dry wood in the fire and expects it
to not light up in flames; he is expecting the impossible, as the
wood has fallen in.
Whoever is well known among people is distinguished by
tribulations, whereas whoever does not know them has truly
lived amongst them.” You may have sat with someone impious,
though you yourself were pious, and so he dragged you towards
backbiting and prevailed over your self.
Nothing has ruined hearts more than the lack of fear fof Allah].
A good heart is that which is not distracted from Allah by the
67. In another edition it reads ‘performing deeds (‘amal)’ instead of

‘seeking knowledge (‘i/m)’.
68. In another edition it reads ‘The same similitude of knowledge without
action is like a candle’.
69. Inanother edition it reads ‘Whoever was acquainted with people and
lived amongst them is not like someone who was unacquainted with them’.
66
finery [of this world]. If you want to cure your heart, then go out
to the desert of repentance, and transform your state from one of
absence [from Allah] to being in [His] proximity; and wear the
garment of humility and poverty; then, indeed, the heart shall
be cured. However, you fill your stomach and boast about being
fat.’ Thus, you are like a lamb that is fattened for slaughter; and
you have surely slaughtered yourself without realising it!
Do not miss out on a gathering of wisdom, even if you happen
to be committing acts of disobedience. Do not say, ‘What is the
benefit in listening to [what is said in] the gathering when I am
unable to abandon acts of disobedience?’ Instead, the archer
should shoot, because if he misses the target today, he will hit
it tomorrow. If you were intelligent and clever, you would have
given Allah’s rights precedence over your own selfish desires.
No one is made privy to secrets except a trustworthy person,
yet you give your self its share of food and drink so that you may
fill the toilet; are you satisfied with loving this world? Whoever
loves this world has proven himself to be treacherous; and does
the King make whomsoever proves to be treacherous privy to
His secrets? So use the formulas of invocation, and it is upon
Him to send down the lights.
Nothing benefits the heart quite like solitude in which it
enters the arena of reflection. How is a heart supposed to be
illuminated when the images of created beings are reflected
in its mirror; or how is it supposed to travel to Allah while it
succumbs to its desires; or how can it expect to enter Allah’s
proximity when it is not purified from the major ritual impurity
(jandbah) of its moments of heedlessness; or how can it hope to
understand the subtle secrets when it has not repented from its
wrongdoings?
The source of every act of disobedience, heedlessness and
forgetfulness is satisfaction with the lower self; and the source
70. This was perhaps in the author’s time, but it is no longer the case now.
67
TA AL-‘ARUS
of every act of obedience, wakefulness and self-restraint is dissat-

isfaction with it.
O slave, flee from this creation to the Creator

Do not travel from one created being to another like a donkey
walking around [in circles] in a mill: the one who is travelled
to is the same one who one had travelled from. Instead, travel
from the creation to the Creator, ‘And to your Lord is the final
destination’ [Qur’an 53:42].
[Divine] lights are merely the mounts of the hearts and the
innermost depths of the hearts (asrar),’' and light is the army of
the heart just as darkness is the army of the lower self. When
Allah wants to give triumph to His slave, He supports him with
the army of lights and severs from him the support of darkness
and distractions [from Allah].”
The light has disclosure (kashf),” the insight (basirah) has
judgement and the heart has inclination (igba/) or aversion (idbar)
[to things].
71. In other words, just as mounts deliver one to one’s destination, simi-
larly the lights [i.e. Divine inspirations] deliver the hearts to their destination,
which is to enter Allah’s presence 3. al-Shurnibi, Sharh al-Hikam, 115.
72. The light referred to in this passage is divinely bestowed knowledge in
the heart, which is similar to an army that is employed by a leader to defeat his
enemies. Likewise darkness, which is satanic whisperings, is the army of the
lower self that is ever enjoining one to evil, whose goal is the fulfilment of base
desires and transitory objectives. So there is a constant battle between such
whisperings and the mind, and when Allah wants to help him in conquering
his base desires, He supports his heart with lights that are like armies, or
armies that are lights, and severs from him the supports that are patches of
darkness. 116.
73. ‘Meaning that the light that Allah casts in the heart of a sincere
seeker (murid), which is al-‘ilm al-laduni [Divinely inspired knowledge], discloses
the meanings [of things], such as the goodness of obedience [to Allah] and the
repugnance of disobedience [to Allah]. The insight comprehends [matters] by
means of this light, just as the eyesight comprehends sensory
68
The exterior of created beings is deception (ghirrah), while their

interior is a lesson of admonition (“brah),’* The self looks towards
the exterior of their deception, while the heart looks towards the
interior of their admonition.
Whenever Allah alienates you from His creation, then know
that He wants to open for you the door to intimacy (uns) with
Himself.
The prayer is the place of intimate discourse and the source
of sincere love (musdfah) wherein the grounds of the secrets are
accommodated, and in which the rays of the lights shine. Due
to the fact that He knew the presence of weakness in you, He
reduced its number [from fifty to only five obligatory prayers a
day], and because He knew your need for His grace, He increased
its reinforcements [i.e. consecutive rewards and secrets].
People praise you for what they assume is in you, so reproach
your self for what you know of it. The most ignorant person is he
who ignores what he is certain of based on people’s assumption of
him.
Conceal mankind’s opinion of you for Allah’s discernment of
you, and be absent from their attention to you by beholding His
attention towards you.
He knew that the slaves will aspire to the manifestation of the
secret of His providence, so He #€ said, ‘He selects for His mer-
cy whomsoever He wills; Allah is the possessor of tremendous
objects by means of apparent light sources, like the sun or a lamp. The heart
subsequently inclines towards those matters that the insight judges to be good,
such as obedience, and is averse to those matters it judges to be bad, such as
disobedience; and the limbs thereby follow it {the heart], as in the hadith,
“Surely, if it [the piece of flesh] is corrupt, then all of the body is corrupt;
verily, it is the heart” [Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim].’ /bid, 116-17.
74, ‘Its exterior is deception, namely a cause for being deceived by them
because of their beauty and splendour; and their interior is a means for one to
draw a lesson of admonishment due to its ugliness and baseness. So the lower
self looks towards its apparent deception and thus is deceived by it until it
destroys one; whereas the heart (i.e. the intellect) looks towards its inner lesson
of admonishment and takes heed from it and so is saved from its evil.’ Jbid. 137.
69
TA AL-‘ARUS
grace’ [Qur’an 2:105]. He knew that had He left them to it, they
would have forsaken deeds out of their reliance on what has been
pre-eternally ordained, so He 4 said, ‘Surely the mercy of Allah
is near to those who do good’ [Qur'an 7:56]. If you want gifts to
arrive at your doorstep, then correct your impoverishment and
need [for Him]: ‘Verily, alms are only for the poor and the desti-
tute’ (Qur'an 9:60].
There are lights that have been permitted to enter, and there
are lights that have been permitted to reach. It may so happen
that lights have come to you but found your heart to be filled
with the images of creation (athdr), so they fled from whence they
descended. Vacate your heart from everything other than Him,
and He will fill it with gnosis and secrets.
A [true] believer is too preoccupied with extolling Allah to
appreciate himself, and he is too preoccupied with Allah’s rights
to remember his own self-interest.
Allah has placed you in the intermediate world between His
sensory realm (mulk) and His unseen realm (malakit)’”> to let you
know the grandeur of your rank amongst His creation, and [to
teach you] that you are a jewel which has been encompassed by
the shells of His created beings.”
You are with creation as long as you do not behold the Creator.
When you behold Him, created beings are with you.
The intelligent person
An intelligent person is more delighted with that which endures

than with that which quickly perishes. His light has glistened
75. Such matters of the unseen realm include the angels, the jinn,
Paradise and the Hellfire.
76. ‘His created beings (which are similar to shells that encompass a
precious jewel) encompass you to serve and protect you, for Allah 44 has made
all of His creation subservient to you for your benefit, as He 3€ said, “And He
has made subservient to you all that is in the heavens and on earth” (Qur'an
45:13].’ Ibid. 232.
70
and his first signs [of acceptance] have already appeared, so he

shunned this abode, turning his back on it, rejecting it, and totally
disregarding it. He did not take it as a permanent abode or as
a place of residence. Instead, he raised his aspiration above it to
Allah 3€ and travelled to Him, seeking His assistance in his arrival
to Him. The mount of his resolve does not settle; it continues to
proceed along until it kneels down in the divine proximity and the
rug of intimacy, the place of mufatahah [initial address], muzwajahah
[encounter], mualasah {sitting together], muhadathah [conversation],
mushahadah {beholding] and muldtafah [congeniality].”
The divine proximity has become the nest of their hearts; to
it they take shelter and in it they take permanent residence. If
they descend to the firmament of [Allah’s] rights and the land
of personal interests, then that is only after permission, a firm
[spiritual] footing and a deeply rooted certainty. They did not
descend to the rights with bad etiquette and heedlessness, nor
to their personal interests with desire and enjoyment. Rather,
they entered all of that through [the assistance of] Allah, for
Allah, from Allah and to Allah. Therefore, beware, my brother,
of lending your ear to those who malign this group [of Allah’s
friends], so that you do not fall from Allah's sight [of esteem]
and become worthy of His wrath, as verily these people sat with
Allah in all honesty, with sincere loyalty and monitoring even
their breaths with Him. They submitted their reins to Him and
77, Al-Shurnibi says in his commentary on the author’s Hikam, “The place
of mufatahah is the Real’s calling by the meanings of His names and attributes.
Muwajahah is the Lord tending to His slave. Mujalasah is constantly adhering
to invoking Allah [literally, sitting with Him]. Muhédathah is speaking within
his own sirr [innermost being] with gnosis and secrets that have been disclosed
unto him from his Lord. Mushahadah refers to unveilings (kashf) in which there
is no illusion (wahm). Mulatafah is congeniality.’ [bid. 251. Ibn ‘Abbad says in
through
his commentary on the author’s Hikam, ‘These are not known except
meanings [i.e.
experience, and likewise is the case with the variations in their
not known except by experience].’ Ibn ‘Abbad, Sharh al-Hikam al-Ata'yyyah, 512.
7]
TAj AL-‘ARUS
cast themselves peacefully before Him, and gave up defending

themselves out of modesty before their Lord. Consequently, He
is the One who fights on their behalf against those who wage war
against them, and the One who subdues those who try to prevail
over them.
Allah has especially tried this group with His creation; in
particular, [they have been tried] by the scholars. Rarely do
you find anyone amongst them whose heart Allah has opened
to fully accepting a particular friend of His. Instead, he will
say to you, ‘Yes, the friends of Allah do exist, but where are
they?’ Not one of them is mentioned to him, except he begins
to deny that Allah has elected him; quick with the tongue in
justifying [this claim], devoid of belief. Beware of someone
whose description is such and flee from him as you would from
a lion.
Beware of attachment to other than Allah

Shaykh Abii al-Hasan 4s said, ‘A jurist (fagih) is not someone
whom the veil has gouged out his heart’s eyes; rather, a jurist is
only someone who has understood the secret of being brought
into existence and that He did not bring him into existence for
any purpose other than to obey and serve Him. If he [truly]
understands this latter point, then this understanding (figh) will
be a cause for his abstinence from this world, his dedication to the
Hereafter, his neglect of personal interests and occupying himself
with his Master’s rights, thinking about the final destination and
preparing for it.
The Messenger of Allah % said, ‘A strong believer is better
according to Allah than a weak believer; and in each there
is good.” A strong believer is he in whose heart the light of
certainty has shone. Allah 3% said, ‘And those Foremost (in
78. Narrated by Muslim, Ahmad and Ibn Majah. The wording of

Muslim is “The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah #8’.
72
Faith) will be Foremost (in the Hereafter). Those are they who
will be brought nigh [to Allah]; in gardens of bliss’ [Qur’an
56;10—-12]. They have outstripped [others] to Allah and divested
their hearts from other than Him, so they were not impeded by
obstacles nor distracted from Allah by [worldly] attachments.”9
Hence, they outstripped [others] to Allah, as there was
nothing to hinder them. Slaves have only been hindered from
outstripping by the intensity of their attachment to other than
Allah. Whenever their hearts are on the verge of travelling to
Allah 3€, they are pulled back by that attachment which is
fixed to them, and so they retreat, returning back to it [i.e. their
attachment] and devoting themselves to it. The proximity [to
Allah] is forbidden for someone of this description and ruled out
for someone of this quality.
The pure heart
Understand His words 38, ‘A day whereon neither wealth nor

children will avail; save him who comes to Allah with a pure
heart’ [Qur’an 26:88-89]. A pure heart is that which is not
attached to anything other than Allah 3€. Also, [understand] His
words 4, ‘You have come to Us alone just as We have created
you the first time, and you have left behind what We bestowed
upon you’ [Qur’an 6:94]. It is understood from [this verse] that
you are unable to reach Allah or arrive to Him [i.e. gnosis of
Him] unless you are isolated from other than Him. Moreover,
[understand] His words 8, ‘Did He not find you an orphan
and thus gave [you] shelter’ [(Qur’an 93:6]; it is understood from
this that Allah does not provide you with shelter unless you are
truly an orphan to everything other than Him. Then there
are his words 4, ‘Verily, Allah is single (witr); and He loves the
single” meaning the heart that is not divided by its attachment
——
79, In another edition it reads ‘creation (khala’ig)’ instead of ‘attachments

(‘ala’ig)’,
73
TA) AL-‘ARUS
to creation.®° Therefore, these hearts were for Allah and through

Allah. Due to this [state], they are the people of proximity [to
Allah] (ahi al-hadrah), who have been addressed by pure favour;
so how can they rely upon other than Him, while it is they who
actually [experientially] behold the existence of His Oneness?
The people of Allah were through Allah,

so Allah was sufficient for them
Shaykh Abi Hasan al-Shadhili # said, ‘The state of beholding

became too intense for me, so I asked Him to veil that from me,
and I was told, “If you had asked Him what Miisa (His Messenger
whom He spoke to (kalim)), ‘Isa (His spirit) and Muhammad (His
beloved and elect 4) asked Him, then He would not have done
that; but instead ask Him to strengthen you.” So I asked Him
and He strengthened me.’
The people of understanding took from Allah and relied upon
Him and were therefore assisted by Him, so He sufficed them
regarding their concerns and dispelled from them their anxieties.
They were busied with what He commanded them [to perform]
from having time to consider what He had guaranteed for them,
out of their realisation that He does not entrust them to other than
Himself and nor does He deprive them of His grace. Consequently,
they found comfort and stood in the garden of submission and the
delight of consigning [their affairs to Allah]; and due to this, Allah
raised their rank and perfected their lights.
Beneficial knowledge
You should know — may Allah # have mercy on you — that
whenever knowledge is reiterated in the Mighty Book or in the
purified Sunnah, then it is solely intended as beneficial knowledge
80. Narrated by al-Bukhari (6047), Muslim (2677) and others.
74
that is accompanied by awe (khashyah) and encompassed by fear.

Allah 4 said, “Those truly fear Allah, among His servants,
who have knowledge’ [Qur’an 35:28]. He here explained that
knowledge accompanies fear; thus it is the scholars who fear
Allah. Furthermore, [consider] His words 8%, “Verily, those who
were given knowledge before it’ [Qur’an 17:107]; ‘But those who
are firmly grounded in knowledge’ [Qur’an 4:162]; ‘And say,
“My Lord, increase me in knowledge” [Qur'an 20:114]. Also,
[see] the Prophet’s words 3 , “The scholars are the inheritors of
the prophets.’ That which is solely meant by knowledge in all of
these instances is beneficial knowledge that subdues one’s caprice
and curbs the lower self. Such [an understanding] is necessarily
certain because the speech of Allah 3 and His Messenger % is
far exalted above being interpreted in any other way. Beneficial
knowledge is that which assists one in acts of obedience, and
engenders awe of Allah 3€ and stopping at the limits ordained
by Him 3. This is the science of the gnosis of Allah 3%. But
whoever gives free rein to himself in [respect to] unrestrictive
usage of Divine Oneness (tawhid) and does not restrict himself to
the ostensive facets of the Sacred Law (Shariah) has thereby been
thrown into the sea of heresy (zandaqah).*' The point, however,
is for one to be supported by the reality (kagigah) and bound by
the Sacred Law. Moreover, whoever attains realisation is neither
unrestrained with the reality nor stationary with the ostensive
ascription to the Sacred Law; but is justly balanced between
them. To remain stationary at the apparent ascription is a form
of associating partners with Allah (shirk); yet, letting one’s reins
free with the reality, without confining oneself to the Sacred
81. [SM] That is because he will end up rejecting the Sacred Law
(Shariah) that has been conveyed by the Messenger # , which is pure heresy.
Likewise, if he confines himself to the Sacred Law, he will fall prey to hidden
polytheism (shirk), because he has not realised sincerity in the deeds of the
Sacred Law. Actions are but standing images, and their sou! is the presence
of sincerity in them.
75
TAy AL-‘ARUS
Law, is a repudiation (fai); and so the station of guidance is

that which is in between the two.
Every knowledge wherein thoughts [of other than Allah]
precede to you, which are followed by images, and towards
which the lower self inclines, and wherein one’s nature takes
delight, then discard it, even ifit is true. Instead adhere to Allah’s
knowledge which He revealed to His Messenger 3. Emulate
him 4, his successors (khulafa’) after him, the Companions and
their followers after them, and those guides to Allah %, the
Imams who have divested themselves of caprice. [By] following
them, you will be safe from doubts and conjecture, illusions and
misgivings, and false claims that lead one astray from guidance
and its realities. It suffices you [to take] of beneficial knowledge
the knowledge of Divine Oneness; and the knowledge (‘/m)* of
the love of Allah, His Messenger #% and his Companions, and
believing that the truth is with the AA/ al-Sunnah wa al-Jama‘ah. If
you want to have a portion of what Allah’s friends $ have, then
you have to totally dismiss people [from your foremost affections],
except for someone who guides you to Allah %. [Such a guide
instructs you] either by way of true indication (ish@rah sadiqah)
or by established deeds that are not nullified by the Book and
the Sunnah. Raise your aspiration to your Master and occupy
yourself with Him and no one else.
I heard Shaykh Abi al-‘Abbas al-Mursi # say, ‘By Allah, I
have not seen honour except in raising one’s aspirations from
creation.’ Remember — may Allah have mercy on you ~— His
words 4, ‘But honour belongs to Allah and His Messenger, and
82. [SM] In other words, repudiation of legal responsibility for one to

comply with the injunctions and prohibitions of the Sacred Law (taéléf). This is
why Imam Malik said, ‘Whoever practises Sufism but does not study Islamic
law (figh) will definitely become an heretic (tazandaga); whereas someone who
studies Islamic law but does not practise Sufism will definitely become morally
corrupt (tafassaga). However, whoever joins between the two will certainly
attain realisation (tahaqqa)’.
83. Inthe manuscript edition it reads ‘‘amal [actions]’ instead of “‘t/m’.
76
to the believers’ [Qur’an 63:8]. Part of the distinction with which

Allah has honoured the believer is that he raises his aspiration to
his Master and [makes him] rely on Him and no one else.
Be shy before Allah, after He has clothed you in the garment
of faith and adorned you with gnosis, that heedlessness and
forgetfulness prevail over you until you end up inclining towards
creation or seeking benevolence from other than Him.
It is disgraceful for a believer to present his need to other than
his Master despite knowing His Oneness and His exclusivity in
His Lordship, all the while he hears Allah’s words 3€, ‘Is not
Allah sufficient for His servant’ [Qur’an 39:36]. Let him also
remember His words 3 , ‘O you who believe, fulfil your contracts’
[Qur’an 5:1]. Amongst the contracts which you have sealed with
Him is that you will not raise your needs to anyone other than
Him and that you will not rely upon anyone except Him. Raising
one’s aspirations from creation is the scale of [measuring one’s]
impoverishment: ‘But establish the scales with justice’ [Qur’an
55:9]. Thus, the truthful becomes manifest for his truthfulness,
as does the [false] claimant for his lie.
Allah 3€ has tested — with His wisdom and favour — the fugara’
{Sufi pretenders] who are not genuine by exposing the base desire
they conceal, so they expended themselves for worldly people,
socialising with them, conforming to them in their ambitions,
and being driven away from their doors. You see one of them
adorn himself as does a bride. They are concerned with mending
their exteriors, oblivious to mending their innermost beings. The
Real has branded them in a way that disclosed their flaw and
revealed their affairs. Initially, they were ascribed to Allah, and
if they had been honest with Allah, then they would been called
the slaves of the Great One (al-Kabir); but now they have been
divested of this ascription, so they are instead called the shaykhs
of the governor (al-amir).
The latter are the ones who falsely attribute [matters] to Allah,
who dissuade the servants from accompanying Allah’s friends,
77
TAy AL-‘ARUS
because what the laymen witness from them, they impute that
to everyone who is associated with Allah, whether genuine or
a pretender. Therefore, they are veils between the people of
realisation, and the clouds between the sun of the people of
divine enablement (taw/ig). They have beaten their drums, raised
their flags, worn their armour, but when the attack is launched,
they turn on their heels. Their tongues are unfastened in their
claims, while their hearts are empty of God-consciousness!
Have they not heard His words 3%, “That He may question the
truthful about their truthfulness’ [Qur’an 33:8]? Do you think
that He will leave the claimants without interrogation when
He will interrogate the truthful about their truthfulness? Have
they not heard His words 3 , ‘And say {unto them], “Act! Allah
will behold your actions, and [so will] His Messenger and the
believers, and you will be brought back to the Knower of the
Invisible and the Visible, and He will tell you what you used
to do” [Qur’an 9:105]? In their outward appearance they are
merely pretending to be of the truthful, while their deeds are of
those who have shunned [the right course]. Allah 3¢ said, ‘Enter
houses through their [proper] doors’ (Qur’an 2:189].
The door to provision is open
Know that the door to provision is obedience to the Provider. So

how can it be sought from Him through disobedience to Him?
Moreover, how is it possible for His grace to descend when [one
is} in opposition to Him? He % said, “That which is with Allah
cannot be gained by His displeasure’;** namely, His provisions
84. Al-Hakim narrated it with similar wording and graded it as rigorously

authentic, and al-Dhahabi agreed with him; the wording is, ‘There is no deed
that brings one close to Paradise except I have commanded you with it... So
if one of you finds that his provision is slow [in being acquired], then let him
not seek it through disobedience to Allah 4€, for verily Allah’s bounty is not
attained through disobedience to Him.’
78
are not sought except through [deeds that gain] His pleasure. He
4g explained this further with His words, ‘And for whoever fears
Allah, He [ever] prepares a way out, and He provides for him
from [sources] he could never imagine’ [Qur’an 65:2-3]. Due to
this meaning, when Shaykh Abi al-‘Abbas <, said in his litany,
‘And give us such and such,’ [he went on to] ask, ‘and [give us]
agreeable, trouble-free provisions wherein there is no veil in this
world, nor for which there is accountability, interrogation or
punishment in the Hereafter. Such people are therefore on the
rug of the knowledge of tawhid [Allah’s Oneness] and the Sacred
Law, free from caprice, base desire and avarice.
Relinquishment of planning alongside Allah %
Beware of planning your affairs alongside Allah 3! The

similitude of someone who plans his affairs alongside Allah is
like that of a slave who has been sent by his master to a city to
produce for him some garments. Then, upon entering that city,
the slave began saying to himself, ‘Where shall I live, and whom
shall I marry?? He subsequently became occupied with that
and dedicated himself to these pursuits, neglecting his master’s
command until eventually he summoned him. Consequently,
his recompense from his master was that he dismissed him and
denied him access to him; [this is all] because his preoccupation
with his own pursuits [prevented him] from tending to his master’s
rights. Likewise is the case with you, O believer, [because] the
Real brought you out to this abode and commanded you to serve
Him therein, while He undertook planning your affairs for you
out of His benevolence. Therefore, if you are preoccupied therein
with planning for your own affairs from tending to your Master’s
right, then you have strayed from the path of guidance and
[instead] trodden on the paths to destruction.
The similitude of one who plans [his affairs] alongside Allah
and the one who does not is like that of two slaves who belong
79
Taj AL-‘ARUS
to a king: as for one of them, he is busy with his master’s orders,

inattentive to [his own] clothing or food; rather, his concern is
serving the master to the exclusion of tending to his personal
interests. As for the other slave, then whenever his master
summons him, he finds him washing his own clothes, training
his own mount and grooming himself! So the first slave is more
deserving of his master’s attention than the second slave. A slave
is only purchased for his master, not for himself. Similarly, you
will not see an insightful, successful slave except that he is busy
with Allah’s rights, complying with His orders and abstaining
from His prohibitions, and [restraining himself] from pursuing
his own personal desires and interests. Accordingly, the Real %
took care of all his affairs and turned to him with abundant gifts,
due to the genuineness of his reliance [on Him]; as in His words
# , ‘Whoever relies upon Allah, then He suffices him’ [Qur’an
65:3]. The heedless person on the other hand is the opposite:
you will not find him except that he is busy attaining his worldly
pursuits and whatever satisfies his whim.
The similitude of a slave with Allah in this abode is like that of
a child with his mother: his mother is not one to neglect planning
[the welfare] for her child in her custody and dprive him of her
care. Likewise a believer is with Allah: He takes care of him
through good custody, delivers to him His favours and wards
tribulations off him.
The similitude of a slave in this world is like that of a slave
whose master says to him, ‘Go to such and such a land, then
prepare well to travel from it to such and such uncultivated land,
and take what you need.’ If his master permitted him that, then
it is obvious that he has allowed him to eat that which will assist
him in maintaining himself so that he may strive in undertaking
all preparations. A slave is in a similar case with Allah: He
brought him into existence in this abode and commanded him
to take provisions from it for his return. He 4 said, ‘And make
provision, for verily the best provision is God-consciousness’
80
[Qur’an 2:197]. It is obvious that when He commands him to

make provision for the Hereafter, He will permit him to take
from this world that which will assist him in making provision for
the Hereafter and preparing him for his return.
The similitude of a slave with Allah is like that of an employee
whom the king brings to his villa and orders him to do a task for
him. Now the king is not one to bring in an employee, employ
him in his house and leave him without feeding him, as he is
more generous than that. Likewise is the case of the slave with
Allah: this world is Allah’s villa, the employee is you, the task
is obedience and the wage is Paradise; and Allah is not one to
command you to do a job without giving you that which will
assist you therein.
Moreover, the similitude of a slave with Allah 8 is like that
of a slave whose master commands him to stay in a land and to
fight and struggle against the enemy therein. It is obvious that
when he has commanded him to do that, he has allowed him
to faithfully eat from the treasuries of that land in order for it to
assist him in fighting the enemy. Likewise is the case with the
slaves [of Allah]: the Real 3 has commanded them to fight and
struggle against their lower selves and Satan; as in His words % ,
‘And faithfully struggle for the sake of Allah; He has chosen you’
[Qur’an 22:78], and, ‘Verily, Satan is an enemy to you, so take
him as an enemy’ {Qur’an 35:6]. Since He has ordered the slave
to fight him, He has permitted him to take from the produce of
His land that which will assist him in fighting Satan, for if you
had gone without food and drink, you would not have been able
to obey Him, nor to earnestly serve Him.
In addition, the similitude of a slave with Allah is like that of a
king who has slaves; he builds a house, decorates and embellishes
it, takes care in planting its trees, and completes it with fanciful
things therein. [This house] is not the dwelling of the slaves; but
fall along] he intends to transfer them to it. Tell me, if this is his
concern for them with regard to what he has stored away for
8]
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
them with himself and prepared for them after their journey,
will he prevent them from now partaking in his bounties and
his surplus food, whilst he has prepared for them a tremendous
affair and an immense favour? Likewise is the case of the slaves
with Allah: He has put them in this world and prepared Paradise
for them, but He does not want to stop them from partaking
from this world, though only to the extent that will keep them
alive. He 3€ said, ‘Eat of the good things and work righteousness’
[Qur’an 23:51], and, ‘O you who believe, eat of the good things
which We have provided you’ [Qur'an 2:172]. If He has stored
away for you that which is everlasting and has favoured you with
it, then He will not deprive you of the transitory. He will merely
deprive you of that which He has not apportioned for you, and
that which He has not apportioned for you is not yours.
The similitude of someone who is worried about his worldly
affairs, yet heedless of gathering provision for his Hereafter, is
like that of a person whom a predatory animal suddenly attacks
by surprise and seeks to devour but then a fly falls on him and
he becomes preoccupied with repelling and warding off the fly,
rather than guarding himself against the predatory animal.
The truth of the matter is that this is a foolish, unintelligent
slave; if he had intelligence, he would have been busy [guarding
himself] from the lion, and its pouncing and attacking him,
as opposed to being concerned about the fly. Likewise is the
case of the person who is distracted by his worldly affairs from
paying attention to gathering provisions for the Hereafter. Such
behaviour demonstrates his stupidity, because if he was astute
and intelligent, he would have prepared for the Hereafter, which
is his responsibility and for which he will be called to account.
Therefore, he should not be occupied with his provisions, because
concern for it in relation to the Hereafter is like that of the fly in
relation to the lion’s sudden appearance and attack.
Whoever stores away possessions entrusted to him is like a
king’s slave who does not consider himself to possess anything
82
alongside his master, nor does he rely upon storing away that
which is in his hands, nor does he have an alternative and nor
does he choose except what his master chooses for him. If this
slave understands that withholding [what he is entrusted with]
is his master’s desire, then he withholds it for his master’s sake,
not for himself, until he discovers the cause upon which it is best
spent, so that he spends it when he understands that his master
wants it to be spent [in that manner]. Such a person is not to
be blamed for his withholding, because he has withheld for his
master’s sake, not for himself. The people who have gnosis of
Allah are similar to this: if they spend, they do so for His sake;
and if they withhold, they do so for Him; they seek to satisfy Him,
and they do not seek in their spending or withholding other than
Him. Thus, they are trustworthy treasurers, esteemed slaves,
and noble, righteous people. The Real had liberated them from
the enslavement to creation (athar),® so they did not incline to it
with love, nor attend to it with fondness. They were prevented
from that by the love and fondness for Allah which He placed in
their hearts and by His grandeur and majesty which filled their
chests. So things in their hands became as if they were in Allah’s
treasuries before having reached them, due to their knowledge
that both they and that which Allah 3% has bestowed upon them
belong to Him.
An exposition for those who benefit from

admonishment and seek insight
The following is an exposition for those who benefit from ad-

monishment and a guidance for those seeking insight. Whoever
relinquishes planning for himself, then Allah will take it upon
Himself to plan beautifully for him.
85. Althar literally means ‘manifestations’ (i.e. of His power).
83
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
Planning is of two types: praiseworthy and blameworthy.

The blameworthy type is any planning that revolves around
your self because of its gratification, and wherein there is nothing
for Allah. For example, using one’s intelligence® to plan the per-
formance of an act of disobedience, or purely for [the fulfilment
of] self-gratification, or [performing] an act of obedience with os-
tentation, self-promotion and the like. All of this is blameworthy
because it either entails punishment [in the Hereafter] or it neces-
sitates one being veiled [from the gnosis of Allah].
Whoever realises the blessing of the intellect is ashamed
before Allah 3€ for expending his intellect in planning for that
which does not bring him closer to Him, or that which is not a
means for attaining His love. The intellect is the greatest favour
that Allah has bestowed upon His slaves. That is because He
3€ created everything that exists and graced them by bringing
them into existence and continually sustaining them, and so all
existent things shared in the fact that He had brought them into
existence and sustained them. The Real 4%, however, wanted to
distinguish man over them and so He granted him intellect and
strengthend him by virtue of it, and thereby made him superior
to the animals and perfected His favour upon mankind. By
virtue of the intellect, and its expansiveness, illumination and
light, the interests of this world and the Hereafter are fulfilled.
To therefore expend the blessing of the intellect in planning for
this world, which is worthless in Allah’s sight 3, is a rejection of
the blessing of the intellect. In contrast, directing it to prioritise
putting right his state for his Afterlife, showing gratitude towards
the One who is benevolent towards him and who floods him
with His light, is more worthy, more fitting, better and more
appropriate for him. Do not therefore expend your intellect, with
which Allah has favoured you, in planning for this world, which
86. In another printed edition it reads ‘because of obliviousness’.
84
is just as the Messenger of Allah 3 described in his words “This

world is a filthy carcass’; and just as he said to Dahhak, ‘What
is your food?’ He replied, ‘Meat and milk.’ So he said, “Then
where do they end up?’ He replied, “To where you well know, O
Messenger of Allah.’ He said, ‘Verily, Allah has made that which
exits out from man [literally, the son of Adam] a similitude for
this world.’®”
Praiseworthy planning is that which brings you closer to Allah
4, such as planning on how to fulfil the rights that one owes
people, either through discharging them or seeking absolution
and pardon, or correcting one’s repentance to the Lord of the
Worlds, or reflecting about that which will lead to suppressing
one’s destructive caprice and the misleading Satan. All of this is
undoubtedly praiseworthy, which is why the Messenger of Allah
# said, ‘Reflection for a moment is better than worshipping for
seventy years.”
Planning for this world is of two types: planning for this world
for the sake of this world, and planning for this world for the sake
of the Hereafter.
Planning for this world for the sake of this world is to plan the
means for amassing it out of pride in it and seeking more of it.
Now the more one gains of it, the more one becomes heedless
and deluded. The sign of this [state] is that it preoccupies him
from obedience [to Allah] and leads him to disobedience.
87, Imam Ahmad narrated on the authority of al-Dahhagq ibn Sufyan

al-Kilabi that the Messenger of Allah % said to him, ‘O Dahhagq, what is
your food?’ He replied, ‘O Messenger of Allah, meat and milk.’ So he replied,
‘Then what becomes of it?’ He replied, “To that which you know.’ He replied,
‘Verily, Allah 3€ has made that which exits out from man [literally, the son of
Adam] a similitude for this world.’
88. [SM] Al-‘Iraqisays in al-Mughni ‘an haml al-asfar, ‘Ibn Hibban narrated
with his chain of transmission in the Book of ‘Azamah the hadith of Aba
Hurayrah with the wording “sixty years” with a weak chain of transmission’;
and a weak chain is acceptable in virtuous acts (al-fada'tl).
85
TA] AL-‘ARUS
Planning for this world for the sake of the Hereafter is like
someone who manages his business so that he may consume from
it the lawful, or that he may spend on the needy out of kindness
and to generally save face with people [by not asking]. The sign of
such [a state] is to not amass and store away [wealth], and to assist
others and prefer them over oneself:
It is thus clear from the above that not every seeker of this world
is to be blamed; rather, the one who is to be condemned is he who
seeks it for himself, not for his Lord, and [seeks it] for his worldly
benefit, not for his Hereafter. People therefore are of two types: a
slave who seeks this world for the sake of this world, and a slave
who seeks this world for the sake of the Hereafter.
The gnostic has neither this world nor the Hereafter
I heard our Shaykh Abi al-‘Abbas al-Mursi # say, “The gnostic

has neither this world nor the Hereafter, because this world of his
is for his Hereafter, and his Hereafter is for his Lord.’ The states
of the Companions [of the Prophet 38] and the early righteous
Muslim community # are to be understood in light of this.
Whenever they engaged with worldly activities, they did so in
order to thereby draw near to Allah and to ascribe to His good
pleasure. They did not thereby seek this world and its ornament
and delights. Consequently, the Real 3% described them with
His words, ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those
with him are stern against the disbelievers, merciful between
themselves; you see them bowing and prostrating, seeking bounty
from Allah and [His] pleasure’ [Qur’an 48:29].
What do you think about a people whom Allah loves and
has chosen for the companionship of His Messenger 4 and for
them to be directly addressed in His revelation? There is not
a single believer till the Day of Resurrection except that he is
indebted to the Companions due to their countless acts of be-
nevolence and unforgettable favours, For they are the ones who
transmitted wisdom and laws to us from the Prophet %, clar-
86
ified the lawful from the unlawful, understood the particular

and general [purport of rulings], conquered regions and coun-
tries, and subdued the idolaters and the defiant. Therefore, his
words # ‘My Companions are like stars: whichever of them
you follow, you will be guided’*®® aptly applies to them. Allah
has described their qualities in a noble verse; He says, ‘They
89. [SM] This hadith is not authentic (sahth) according to the scholars,
but they have differed as to whether it is fabricated (mawdi‘), very weak or
merely weak (da‘f) in respect to some of its chains of transmission, and a
weak hadith is accepted by the scholars in fad@’il, especially when there are
supporting hadiths. Al-Hafiz Aba Bakr al-Bayhagi said in his book al-I‘tigad,
after mentioning the hadith of Abii Miisa, which he ascribed back to the
Prophet 3% , that ‘The stars are [a source of] safety for the skies; when the stars
disappear, then what the inhabitants of the skies have been threatened with
will befall them. My Companions are a safety for my nation, and when my
Companions disappear, then what my nation has been threatened with will
transpire’. Muslim narrated it with the same meaning. It has been narrated
in an uninterrupted hadith (mawsil) with a weak chain of transmission, and
in another interrupted chain of transmission (mungatt‘), that he 3 said, “The
similitude of my Companions is like the similitude of the stars in the skies;
whoever adopts one of the stars, he will be guided.’ He said, “The rigorously
authentic hadith which we have narrated here conveys its meaning partially.’
Siraj al-Din ibn Mulaqqin, al-Badr al-munir ft takhriy al-ahddith wa al-athar al-
waqi‘ah fi al-sharh al-Kabir (n.p.), 9:587.
Ibn Hajar says in Talkhis al-Habir, ‘Bayhaqi was right in that it conveys
the validity of comparing the Companions to the stars specifically; as
for emulating them, it is not obvious in the hadith of Abu Musa. Yes, it is
possible to infer that from the meaning of seeking guidance from the stars.
The apparent meaning of the hadith is only an indication to the tribulations
that will occur after the end of the epoch of the Companions, such as the
disappearance of the Prophetic practices (sunan), the prevalence of innovations
and the widespread immorality across the globe. Allah is sought for help.’
Ibid. 5:498. ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz understood from this hadith that their
difference of opinion is a [source of] mercy; he said, ‘I would not have been
happy if the Messenger of Allah’s Companions did not differ with one another
{on legal rulings}, because if they did not have any differences of opinion, then
there would not have been any dispensations (rukhsaf).’ Ibn Battah, al-Jbanah
al-kubra (n.p.), 2:221.
87
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
seek bounty from Allah and [His] good pleasure’ [Qur’an 59:8},
His words 4 prove that they did not seek and intend with the
worldly possessions they bore other than His noble countenance
and tremendous bounty. He 3 said in another verse, “In houses
which Allah has permitted to be exalted and for His name to
be mentioned therein; in them He is glorified in the mornings
and in the evenings. [Those are] men whom neither merchan-
dise nor selling diverts them from the remembrance of Allah’
(Qur’an 24:36-37]. He did not negate from them [the engage-
ment with] worldly means, business or buying and selling, so
their wealth does not disqualify them from [His] praise when
they fulfilled their Master’s rights.
This world is in their hands, not in their hearts
‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Utbah said, ‘On the day that he was murdered,
‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan® # had 100,500 gold dinars and 1,000,000
Al-Munawi says in Fayd al-Qadir, ‘Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi says regarding

the hadith “My Companions are like the stars: whichever of them you
follow”, “Not everyone who met him and followed him or only saw him once
is included in it; but rather [it refers to] those who adhered to him morning
and evening and thus would receive revelation and take the Sacred Law
from him, which was prescribed as a methodology for the nation; and [the
ones who would] look into the etiquette of Islam and its qualities, so they
became after him Imams, guides and exemplars to be followed, and through
them is safety and faith.”’ Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said in his explanation, ‘It is as
has been explained by al-Muzani and others from amongst the people of
erudition that it [being guided by them] is regarding the transmission [of
Prophetic hadiths], because all of them are reliable, trustworthy and upright
# ; therefore, it is necessary to accept what anyone of them has transmitted
and testified to the Prophet #%.’
90. He was the third rightly guided caliph and the Prophet’s son-in-law
#% , having married two of his daughters, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthim @,
one after another, which is why he was called Dhii Nirayn (the Possessor of
the Two Lights) 4. He was martyred by some rebels in 35 AH at the age of
eighty-two.
88
silver dirhams, and he left behind 1,000 horses, 1,000 slaves and
[the following] real estate: the Wells of ‘Aris, Khaybar and Wadi
al-Qura, whose value was 200,000 dinars.’ ‘Amr ibn al-‘As”' left
behind 300,000 dinars. The wealth of Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwam”
reached 50,000 dinars, and he had left behind 1,000 horses and
1,000 slaves. ‘The wealth of ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-‘Awf 4° is
too well known to be mentioned.
This world was in their hands, not in their hearts. They were
patient when they lacked it, and grateful to Allah when they had
it. Allah only tried them with poverty and need in the beginning
of their affair until [eventually] their lights were perfected and
their innermost beings were purified; thereupon, He lavished
it upon them generously. Had they been given it before that, it
may have captivated them. But when they were given it after
fortitude and a deep-rooted certainty, they spent it like a faithful
91. ‘Amr ibn al-‘As accepted Islam in the eighth year after Hegira when
he was more than fifty years of age. The Prophet #% would keep him close
to himself due to his bravery and knowledge and put him in charge of the
Dhat al-Salasil expedition; he later appointed him as governor over Oman.
‘Umar, during his reign, appointed him at the head of the army that would
successfully conquer Egypt. He was thereafter appointed as ‘Umar’s governor
in Egypt, where he passed away in 43 AH at the age of ninety-four.
92. Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwam is the Prophet’s paternal cousin 4 and one
of the ten to be given the glad tidings of Paradise by him. He was also one
of the six-man consultative team appointed by ‘Umar to select the caliph to
succeed him .& .Zubayr was the first to unleash the sword in Allah’s way. He
participated in all of the Prophet’s military expeditions % . He was martyred
in 36 AH.
93. ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn al-‘Awf is also one of the ten to be given the
glad tidings of Paradise by the Prophet 4% and one of the six-man consultative
team appointed by ‘Umar to select the caliph to succeed him # . He migrated
both to Abysinnia, when the Muslims were persecuted in Mecca, and then to
Medina with the Prophet 3. He was one of the few who stood their ground
with the Prophet 4 on the battleground of Uhud, when others fled. He passed
away in 31 AH at the age of seventy-five in Medina, and was buried in Baqi‘.
‘Uthman led his funeral prayer in accordance with his bequest.
89
Tay AL-‘ARUS
treasurer, and they complied therein with the words of the Lord
of the Worlds, ‘And spend of that whereof He has made you
trustees’ [Qur’an 57:7]. And so this world was in the hands of
the Companions, not in their hearts.
It suffices you to know that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab & %* ex-
pended half of his wealth, Aba Bakr al-Siddiq * expended
all of his wealth, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-‘Awf financed 700
camels laden with supplies, ‘Uthman ibn al-‘Affan 2 [finan-
cially] prepared the Army of Difficulty (Jaysh al-Usrah), and
other examples of their beautiful deeds and elevated states, may
Allah forever be pleased with them all. The foregoing verses
contain an endorsement of their external and internal states,
and affirm their praiseworthy and glorious virtues.
It has become clear from the foregoing that planning is of
two types: planning for this world for the sake of this world, as
is the state of those ignoble, heedless people who have severed
their ties with Allah; and planning for this world for the sake of
the Hereafter, as is the case of the noblest Companions and the
righteous predecessors, may Allah be well pleased with them
all and make us amongst those who follow them. Amin; rather,
a million admins!
94. He is the second rightly guided caliph, the first caliph to be given the
title ‘the Leader of the Believers’ and the Prophet’s father-in-law % . He % gave
him the epithet al-Faraig, which means the criterion, because by virtue of him
the truth was distinguished from falsehood. He was martyred at the hand ofa
Magian servant called Abu Lu’lu’ah in 23 AH at the age of sixty-three.
95. He was the first rightly guided caliph to succeed the Prophet % , his
father-in-law and companion on his migration to Medina. He is considered to
be the best Companion according to Sunni orthodoxy and there are copious
narrations demonstrating his rank and virtue. The Prophet % said, “The sun
has neither risen nor set over anyone better than Aba Bakr, after the prophets
and the messengers.’ He passed away in 13 AH at the age of sixty-three and
was buried in ‘A’ishah’s room, next to the Prophet 3% .
90
The hidden voices of realities (hawatif)”
We shall mention herein the Real’s private discourse 3€ with His

slave on the tongues of the hidden voices of realities regarding
[the subject of] planning and provision.
O slave, listen attentively as you behold! More shall come to
you from Me, and pay attention, for I am not remote from you.
You were in My planning for you before you were for your self,
so be for your self by not being for it. I took care of it [i.e. your
self] before your emergence, and I am now still taking care of it.
I am alone in creating and fashioning, and I am alone in
decreeing and planning. You did not participate with Me in My
creating and fashioning, so do not participate with Me in My
decreeing and planning.
I am the One who plans for My dominion and I do not have
an assistant therein; and I am alone in decreeing and thus not in
need of a vizier.
O slave, [regarding] the One who was planning for you before
bringing you into existence, do not compete with Him in what
He Wills; and [regarding] the One who accustomed you to His
beautiful care for you, do not confront Him with defiance.
I accustomed you to My excellent care for you, so accustom
Me to your relinquishing planning alongside [My planning].
Is there any doubt after experience, confusion after exposition
or deviation after clear guidance? You have submitted to Me in
My management of My kingdom, and you are from My kingdom,
so do not dispute with Me about My Lordship and do not oppose
[Me] by your planning alongside My Divinity.
96. [SM] These are inspirations (waridal) that Allah brings on the
tongues of created things around him, so he hears from them as if they are
from the Real, and they penetrate the heart of a slave in a manner that he
understands in it from Allah what He wants from him by way of these created
things addressing him.
pe
TAy AL-‘ARUS
When have I made you in need of yourself, such that you

assign your affairs to yourself?
When have I entrusted anything of My kingdom to anyone
else, such that I would entrust any of it to you?
When has the one whose affairs I was planning been dis-
appointed? And when has the one to whom I was a support been
forsaken?
O slave, let your service to Me preoccupy you from seeking
what I apportion [for you], and let your good opinion of Me stop
you from suspecting My Lordship. It is not befitting to suspect
a benevolent one, nor to dispute with a powerful one, nor for
an overpowering one to be opposed, nor for a wise one to be
objected to, nor for one to be worried when with someone kind.
Whoever has divested himself from his will [in order to place
reliance] with Me has truly succeeded. Whoever transfers his
affairs to Me has been guided to the facilitation of his affairs.
Whenever a slave moves through Me alone, then he has truly
made himself entitled to triumph by Me. Whoever holds firmly
to My rope has truly held on to the strongest rope.
O slave, We want you to want Us and not for you to want
[someone else] alongside Us. We want you to choose Us and not
to choose [someone else] alongside Us. We are pleased for you
to be pleased with Us and not to be pleased with other than Us.
Just as you have submitted to Me [in] My planning on My earth
and heaven, and My exclusive judgement and decree in them,
then hand over your existence to Me, for verily you belong to
Me. Do not plan alongside Me, for verily you are with Me. Take
Me as an agent and trust Me as a guarantor, and I shall give you
abundantly and gift you tremendous glory.
Woe to you! We have deemed your status to be much loftier
than for Us to employ you for your own affair, so do not belittle
your status.
O the one whom We have elevated, do not abase yourself by
transferring your affairs to other than Us.
92
O the one whom We have honoured, woe to you! You are far
too great in Our sight for Us to employ you for other than Us.
For My proximity I have created you; to it I have addressed
you; and by the gravitational pull of My care to it I have pulled
you. So if you occupy yourself with your self, I will veil you; and
if you follow its caprice, I will expel you; and if you divest yourself
of it, I will bring you near; and if you show Me love, by turning
away from other than Me, I shall love you.
O slave, whoever disputes Me has not believed in Me, and
whoever plans alongside Me has not realised My Oneness.
Furthermore, whoever complains to other than Me about what
I have afflicted him with is not satisfied with Me. Moreover,
whoever has chosen alongside Me has not chosen Me, and
whoever did not submit to My compelling force has not complied
with My command.
If you were to seek to plan, then you would be ignorant; so
what about when you [actually] plan for it? If you had chosen
alongside Me, you would not have been just; so what about when
you choose [someone] over Me?
O the one who is worried about his self, if you had cast it to Us,
then you could have relaxed.
Woe to you! The burdens of planning cannot be borne except
by Lordship. Human weakness is unable to bear it.
Woe to you! You are carried, so do not [try to] be the carrier.
We wanted you to be at ease, so do not tire yourself out.
O slave, 1 commanded you to serve Me, and guaranteed
you My apportionment (g:smah). But you have neglected what I
commanded and doubted in what I guaranteed. I did not suffice
Myself by merely guaranteeing until I swore an oath; and I did
not suffice Myself in swearing an oath until I drew a similitude,
the
so I addressed slaves who could understand and said, ‘And in
heaven is your sustenance, as is also that which you are promised.
Then by the Lord of the heavens and the earth! It is most surely
the truth, just as you do speak’ [Qur’an 51:22-23], I have given
93
TA AL-‘ARUS
provisions to the one who was heedless of Me and disobeyed Me,

so how can I not provide for someone who obeys Me and calls
on Me?
Woe to you! The one who really plants a tree is the one who
waters it, and the One who sustains creation is the One who
has originated it. From Me was the bringing forth of existence,
and upon Me is [the duty] to continually sustain it. From Me
was creation and upon Me is [the duty] to continually provide
for it. Do I allow you to enter My abode yet deprive you of My
kindness? Do I bring you forth to My creation yet deprive you of
My assistance? Do I bring you forth to My existence (wwjiidz) yet
deprive you of My generosity (judi)?
For you I have prepared My grace, and in you I have manifested
My mercy. I was not satisfied for you to have this world until I
stored away for you My Garden; and I did not suffice Myself
[with giving the Garden] to you so I gifted you the vision of Me.
If My actions are [as you know them], then how can you
doubt My benevolence? Therefore, choose Me and do not choose
[others] over Me, and genuinely turn your heart to Me. If you
do so, I will show you the wonders of My benevolence and My
unparalleled generosity, and give delight to your innermost being
(sirr) by beholding Me.
I have made manifest the path to those accomplished, and
have made clear the landmarks of guidance for those given
divine enablement. So it is right that those with certainty have
submitted to Me, and the believers have put their trust in Me
due to [My] exposition. They knew that I am better to them
than they are to themselves, and that My planning [their affairs]
for them is more fitting than their planning for themselves, so
they submitted fully to My Lordship, and cast themselves before
Me in resignation. Therefore, I compensated them for that [by
placing} comfort in their souls, a light in their intellects, gnosis in
their hearts and realisation of My proximity in their innermost
beings. This is in this abode; and I have prepared to magnify
94
their status and elevate their position when they arrive to Me;
and they have, when I allow them to enter My abode, that which
no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no human has imagined.
O slave, I have not demanded from you service [to Me] in the
time that awaits you [in the future], so do not demand from Me
therein apportionment [of provisions]. When I charge you, I take
responsibility for you, and when I employ you, I feed you.
Know that I do not forget you, even if you forget Me, and that
I have enabled your remembrance before you ever remembered
Me; and that My sustaining you is perpetual, even if you disobey
Me. If you are apathetic to Me, [and I treat you so generously, |
then how do you think I will be when you devote [yourself] to
Me? You have underestimated Me if you do not submit to My
omnipotence, and have not truly considered My goodness if you
do not comply with My command. Do not shun Me, for you shall
not find a substitute for Me, and do not be deceived by others, for
none shall be of any avail to you against Me.
I am the One who created you with My power, and I am the
One who generously bestows my grace upon you. Just as there is
no creator other than Me, likewise there is no provider other than
Me. Do I create and transfer [people’s needs] to others when I
am the Benevolent, and deprive My slaves of My goodness when
I am the Beneficent?
Therefore, O slave, trust in Me, for Iam the Lord of the slaves,
and leave your desire so that I deliver you to the true goal. In
addition, remember My preceding kindness and do not forget
the right of mutual love.
The author’s intimate discourses (munajat) #

with his Lord
My God, I am impoverished in my affluence, so how can I not be

impoverished in my poverty? I am ignorant in my knowledge, so
how can I not be ignorant in my ignorance?
95
TAJ AL-‘ARUS
My God, from me is that which befits my callousness, and

from You is that which befits Your generosity. If virtuous deeds
I
and traits emanate from me, then it is out of Your grace, and
am beholden to You. If offences and blameworthy traits emanate
from me, then it is out of Your justice; and You have a proof
against me.
My God, how can You leave me to my own devices when You
have made me rely on you? How could I be treated unjustly when
You are my succor? How can I be disappointed when You are the
One gracious to me?
Here I am seeking proximity to You by means (fawassul) of
my impoverishment. How can I ask You by means of something
that cannot possibly reach You? How can I complain to You
about my condition when it is not hidden from You? How can
I express the words [in my heart] when it is from You that they
emerge,” and to You [their affair returns]? How can my hopes
be unfulfilled when they have arrived to You? How can my states
not be improved when they have subsisted through You and to
You [their affair returns]?
My God, how kind You are to me despite my ignorance; and
how merciful You are to me despite my abominable deeds! How
close You are to me, yet how remote I am from You; and how
compassionate You are to me! So what is it that veils me from You?
My God, just as my callousness has made me mute, so too
Your generosity has made me speak. Whenever my qualities
make me despair, Your grace makes me optimistic.
My God, whosoever’s virtuous deeds are [in reality] faults,
then how can his faults not be faults? And whosoever’s realities
are claims, then how can his claims not be claims?
My God, how can I have resolve when You are the Dominator,
and how can I not resolve when You are the One who gives orders?
97. Namely, He gave him the ability to speak.
96
My frequenting creation necessitates remoteness from the

arrival [to You],”* so allow me to devote myself to You through
service that delivers me to You.
How can something which in its existence is contingent upon
You be used as a proof for Your existence? Is there anything else
that is more manifest than You such that it reveals You?
When were You absent such that You require a proof to guide
to You, and when have You been remote such that creation
directs unto You?
My God, the eye that does not see You as a guardian over it is
blind, and the contract of a slave for whom You did not ordain a
portion of Your love is a loss.%
My God, my humiliation is manifest before You, and my state
is not hidden from You. From You I seek arrival and through
You I am guided to You, so guide me by Your light to You,!° and
establish me in complete servitude to You.
My God, teach me from Your concealed knowledge,’ protect
me by the secret of Your protected name, make me realise the
realities of the people of proximity, guide me along the paths of
the people of jadhb [divine selection],'* suffice me from having
to plan for myself by planning for me and [suffice me] with Your
choosing from me having to choose for myself, station me at the
98. “This is beholding His Oneness and perfection through gnosis.’ Ibn
‘Abbad, Sharh al-Hikam, 541.
99. ““Love” here refers to His mercy, praise and generosity.’ Ibid. 543.
100. “The “light” here refers to the light of faith and certainty.’ Ibid. 546.
101. ‘AA al-jadhb, literally, the people of attraction, are those beloved to
Him and selected by Him, who find no fatigue or hardship in their acts of
worship, but instead find pleasure and delight, and that is because He has
released them from the captivation of their lower selves.’ [bid. 547.
102. ‘AAl al-jadhb, literally, the people of attraction, are those beloved to
Him and selected by Him, who find no fatigue or hardship in their acts of
worship, but instead find pleasure and delight, and that is because He has
released them from the captivation of their lower selves.’ [bid. 547.
97
TAy AL-‘ARUS
settlements of my helplessness, bring me out of the humiliation

of my lower self, and purify me from my doubts and associating
partners with You (shirk)'°? before the befalling of my death.
Through You I seek triumph, so grant me triumph. Upon You
I place my trust, so do not forsake me. You alone I ask, so do not
deprive me. Of Your grace I am desirous, so do not fail me. To
Your entity I ascribe [myself], so do not turn me away. At Your
door I stand, so do not expel me.
My God, verily divine destiny (gada’ wa gadar) has overwhelmed
me, and caprice, with the shackles of base desire, has captured
me. So be my support until You grant me triumph and insight,
and suffice me with Your grace so that I am content with Your
bounty from having to ask.
You are the One who has shone the lights in the hearts
of Your friends, and You are the One who has removed the
distractions from the innermost beings of Your loved ones. You
are their comforter when they are alienated by the words, and
You are the One who has guided them until the landmarks
became clear to them.
What has one gained if he has lost You? And what has one lost
if he has found You?
Whoever is satisfied with other than You as a substitute has
truly failed, and whoever resorts to other than You to manage
his affairs has truly lost.
How can one have hope in other than You when You have not
ceased Your kindness? How can one seek from other than You
when You have not changed Your custom of generosity?
O the One who has made His loved ones taste the sweetness
of His intimate company, so they stood before Him courteously
gaining His favour. O the One who has clothed His friends in the
103. ‘Namely, the hidden shirk, which is for one to be attached to worldly
means (asbab) and obliviousness to the Creator of means (musabbib), Ibid. 548.
98
garments of His awe, so they stood honoured by His might. You

are the One who enables remembrance before [the existence of]
those who remember, and You are the One who initiates with
kindness before the worshippers devote themselves to You. You
are the One who gives generously before those seeking can ask.
You are the Benevolent and the One who has graced us with
gifts, [and I am simply] the borrower, so seek me by Your mercy
so that I may reach You, and draw me to Yourself by Your favour
so that I may devote myself to You.
My God, my hope in You will never cease, even if I disobey
You, just as my fear does not depart from me whilst I obey You.
The worlds have pushed me towards You, and my knowledge of
Your generosity has made me stand before You, so how can I fail
when You are my hope, or how can I be subjected to humiliation
when my reliance is upon You? How can I be honoured when
You have embedded me in humiliation, or how can I not be’
honoured when You have ascribed me to Yourself? How can I
not be impoverished when it is You who has established me in
poverty, or how can I be impoverished when it is You who has
enriched me by Your generosity?
You are the One besides whom there is no other god. You have
made Yourself known to everything, so nothing is ignorant of
You,'* and You have made Yourself known to me in everything,
so I have seen You manifest in everything;'® for You are the One
Manifest to everything.
104. ‘In other words, He manifested Himself to everything until it knew

Him and glorified Him, as He 3 said, “And there is not a single thing but it
glorifies Him with His praise, but you do not understand their glorification”
(Qur’an 17:44], al-Shurnabi, Sharh al-Hikam, 82-83.
105. ‘In other words, all things are manifestations of the meanings
denoted by His names. Thus, the meaning of Him being al-Mu'tzz [the One
who bestows honour] appears in the people who are honoured, and the
meaning of Him being a/-Mudhill [the One who debases] appears in the people
who are humiliated, and so forth.’ /bid. 82.
99
TA) AL-‘ARUS
O the One whose all-mercifulness prevailed over His throne

whereby the throne became concealed in His all-mercifulness,
just as the worlds have become concealed in His throne. The
creation (dthar) [i.e. the worlds] has been obliterated by the
manifestation (athdr) [i.e. His throne], and You have erased the
aghyar'* by the surrounding celestial bodies of lights.'°’
O the One who has veiled Himself in the canopies of His
might so that sight [does not] encompass Him. O the One who
has manifested with the perfection of His splendour so that the
innermost beings (asrdr) have realised His grandeur. How can
You be hidden when You are the Manifest (Z@fzr),'°° or how can
You be absent when You are the Guardian Present?
106. Aghyar literally means ‘others’ but in this context it means the throne.
107. Inother words, Your mercy which resembles the celestial bodies that
encompass the throne.
108. The author says in al-Hikam, ‘All of the universe (kKawn) is darkness,
and it is only the manifestation of the Real therein that has illuminated it.’ In
commentary on these words, al-Shurnibi says, “The universe is intrinsically
total darkness (i.e. sheer non-existence), because it has no existence in and of
itself; rather, what brought it to light (i.e. into existence) is the manifestation
of the Real 3% therein, namely, a manifestation of [Him] bringing it into
existence and making Himself known, not a manifestation of indwelling and
modality. In other words, He manifested Himself to it with His entity and said
to it, “Be, and it was”, and He is able to terminate it now and in the future.’
Ibid. 79. Thus, what is meant by Him being manifest in creation is not to be
understood as Him 8% indwelling therein, as this is rationally and textually
impossible to attribute to Allah. In fact, no common Muslim believes that
Allah can indwell in creation, let alone eminent Sufis like the author.
Imam Hafiz al-Suyti says in a work in defence of the Shadhili Order,
‘Amongst the Sufis who have supported the position of declaring those who
believe in indwelling (huld/) or union (itzhad) [of the Divine with the creation]
to be disbelievers is Hafiz Abii Nu‘aym al-Asfahani in the beginning of
[his work] al-Hilyah, as previously mentioned, and likewise Qadi Nasir al-
Din al-Baydawi, the authority (Imam) in Qur’anic exegesis, jurisprudence,
theology, principles of jurisprudence and Sufism. Look at the famous
exegesis [by al-Baydawi] and you shall find it filled with Sufism, and he has
explicitly mentioned in [the commentary of] Sirah al-Ma’idah that whoever
100
May Allah bless our master Muhammad, the pure, unblem-

ished, unlettered Prophet and his family with a blessing whereby
problems are solved, anxieties are eliminated, harm disappears
and difficulties are facilitated, and a blessing that is pleasing to
You and him and whereby You are pleased with us, O Lord of
the Worlds!
believes in indwelling and union [of the Divine with creation] is a disbeliever.
Furthermore, Qadi ‘Iyad says in [his work] al-Shifa’ (paraphrasing), “The
Muslims are in unanimous agreement concerning the disbelief of those who
espouse indwelling and whoever claims that the Originator 3¢ indwells in
any particular person, as is the opinion of some [so-called] Sufis, esotericists,
Christians and the Qaramitah [a heretical sect].” Look how he has ascribed
that to some of the Sufis, and these are the extremists amongst them, not all of
them (Allah forbid them from that).’ The author then goes on to exonerate the
Shadhili Sufis, amongst them the author, from such a heterodoxical belief and
refutes this notion. al-Suyiti, Ta’yid al-hagigah al-‘aliyyah, 65.
101
Notes
Muhammad #: A Portrait
of Perfection
The Prophet Muhammad #&
is both the moral exemplar for
mankind—sent by Allah as
a mercy to the worlds (Qur’an ne as aes
21:107)—and the ultimate Soles
possessor of physical beauty. Shadi
aMabramadiyo
His Companion ‘Ali ibn Abi
Talib & said—as did many
others—that ‘Never have I
seen the like of him; not before
or since’. Naturally, Muslims,
beginning first and foremost coeur epee
with his contemporaries Bek patea
(ie. the Companions), have :
meticulously conveyed the
fine details of his beauty and
character, including his physical
| form, seal of prophethood, clothing, and his manner of
| walking, reclining, eating, drinking, speaking and laughter,
sleeping and devotion and so forth. The earliest and most
famous work of this genre was the Shama’il of the great
Hadith master Imam al-Tirmidhi. This latter work was later
abridged and annotated by Shaykh al-Sharnutbi, of which
this is the English translation.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-Majid al-Sharnubi (d. 1348/1929) was an

Egyptian scholar educated at the al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo.
He authored numerous commentaries on Arabic grammar,
sacred law, Hadith and spirituality.
Available from HERITAGE PRESS af:

www.heritagepress.co.uk
Muhammad #: The Best of Creation
This two-part treatise is a trans-
lation of Shaykh Muhammad
ibn ‘Alawi al-Malikt’s Ta’rikh
al-hawadith wa al-alrval al-na-
A Glimpee
ae — bawiyyah [The history of the
Prophetic events and states],
wi comprehensive summary of
some of the most authoritative
and voluminous works written
on the Prophetic biography. The
first part deals with various
ShamedihAle -NBIN saan aspects of the Prophet's life &,
ee such as his early years before
receiving revelation, members
of his family, his servants, mir-
acles, signs of his prophethood, the weapons he used in battle,
the beasts he rode, the clothes he wore and so forth. The sec-
ond part is a chronological summary of the most important
events to have taken place in his life.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Alawi al-Maliki, a direct de-

scendant of the Prophet &, was born in Mecca in 1365/1944,
and a world-renowned scholar who spent his life teaching
and writing. He held many prestigious positions, including
religious instructor and imam at the Haram Mosque after his
| father, professor at the Faculty of Sharia, King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz
University, Mecca, 1390-1399 AH, and an active member of
the World Islamic League. He died in Mecca in 1425/2004.
Avatlay efron HERITAGE PRESSar.

How to Perform Hajj and Umrah According
to the Four Sunni Schools of Law
The hajj, or Greater Pilgrimage,

to Mecca has been established as___ y oo rs
ieel
a religious duty in the Glorious HAIJ UMRAH
Quran, and the Messenger of C1 Aelia son Sof
Allah #& has described it as one ae
emng,
ar
Notte
menor
of the ‘pillars’ of Islam and an

‘expiator of all of one’s past sins’.
In addition, Muslims are called
upon to make the umrah, or
Lesser Pilgrimage, to Mecca and
to visit the Prophetic Mosque
and the Messenger of Allah
# in Medina. In each of these i es: ee
matters, one is to take the divine Biyayxteso Abs te RE
instructions from the Glorious ES ORO sn ERT DIR
Qur'an and Sunnah as the guides in setting out the correct legal
method and etiquette. In this regard, the scholars of the Four
Sunni Legal Schools: Hanafi Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali have
expounded these divine commands in meticulous detail.
This is a comprehensive hajj and umrah manual of
instruction on how to perform these pilgrimages, in terms of
both the letter and spirit of the law, according to these schools,
that shows us the great flexibility that is the characteristic of the
Sacred Law of Islam.
Shaykh Nar al-Din ‘Itr (born in 1934) is one of the leading
contemporary scholars from Aleppo, Syria in Qur’anic and
Hadith sciences. For many years he has served as the head of
the Faculty for Qur’anic and Hadith Sciences and as a professor
at the University of Damascus and other Islamic institutes both
in Syria and in other Arab countries, while also authoring and
editing numerous scholarly works and journals.
~ Available front HERTTAG

The Seekers’ Aid in Upholding the
Religious Duties
The Prophet & said,
‘Islam is built upon five
[pillars]: the testimony
that there is no god
except Allah and that
Muhammad is the
messenger of Allah,
establishing the prayer,
paying zakat, making
the hajj to the House,
and fasting in Ramadan’
(narrated by al-Bukhari
and Muslim).
This short treatise
succinctly presents each
| of these five pillars with
the detail necessary for their correct understanding and
application.
The author, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Ghunaymi al-
Maydani (d. 1298/1880 or 1881), was born and raised in
Damascus. There he memorised the Qur’an and studied
under the foremost scholars of the time. As well as his
expertise in Islamic law, he was also renowned for his
exemplary piety. He is most famous for his popular
commentary on the Hanafi legal classic Mukhtasar al-
Qudari, known simply as al-Lubab.
Available Fron HERITAGE PRESS at:

The Essential Islamic Creed
The essence of Islam is

its creed, which validates a BANE RS he
the performance of one’s TH E ESSE N PAL
| worship; thus making it ISLAMIC CREED
eligible for acceptance. The
obligation to have sound ~~ @
doctrine has led Muslim
theologians to develop an
elaborate discipline of creed (@)
based primarily on the
Qur'an and Sunnah, whilst
also incorporating sound
rational argumentation. EE SS ee esa
This work by Shaykh Ames
Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan
is asummary of the core )
tenets of faith in the manner of the Late-Sunni Tradition,
enumerating what a Muslim should believe regarding
Allah; the prophets; the Divine Scriptures; the angels; the
Resurrection Day, with its prelude and finale; the Prophet's
Companions [may Allah bless him and give him peace]
and miracles of Allah’s friends.
Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan (1817-1886) was the
leading Shafi‘ mufti and scholar of Mecca in his time,
and an authority on Islamic history. He authored, and
personally published, numerous works on the Islamic
sciences and history.
“Available from HERITAGE PRESS af!

The Pure Ancestry of the Prophet &
The Messenger of Allah &

said, ‘I was sent from the |
best of generations of Adam’s THE PURE
progeny, generation after ANG ES CRY
generation, until I reached
my generation’ (Sahih al- PRC rPE1ET
Bukhari). Unsurprisingly, in
light of this narration and
numerous other evidences,
the classical scholarly
position has established
the eternal salvation of the
Prophet's parents @& and his
direct ancestors. These two
treatises provide a concise, ; Se
yet in-depth analysis of the maths nem) to prove this
position.
Imam Jalil al-Din al-Suyiti (849-911 AH) was one of the
most prolific and significant scholars of Islamic history,
having authored around 600 works, many of which
have retained a lofty position in the traditional syllabi of
Islamic centres of learning.
Shaykh Ishaq ‘Aziz al-Makki (1330-1415 AH) was a
prominent Meccan scholar, who was involved in the
administration of Islamic education for several decades
in the Hijaz. Not only did he study with a number of
leading scholars of his time, but he also wrote on a broad
range of topics.
WANAV Neritaseprese co.uk

The Essence of Sufism
Sufism, or tasawwuf, has

been the classical name
given to the Islamic
discipline of purifying
the heart of its spiritual
maladies. The Qur’an
has warned: A Day [of
Judgement] in which neither
wealth nor children shall be
ofany benefit [to anyone],
except one who comes to
Allah with a sound heart
(26:88-9). The masters
of Sufism speak of there
being two thousand
| definitions of Sufism; ire
however, the most inclusive of them was provided by their
supreme authority, al-Junayd: ‘Sufism is to adopt every lofty
character trait and renounce every base character trait.’
This short treatise was penned by Shaykh Abt Bakr
al-Mulla (d. 1270 AH), a traditional scholar from a
learned family from al-Ahsa’l, in modern-day Saudi
Arabia, wherein he elaborates on the foundations of this
discipline. These principles are contextualised through
Qur’anic verses, hadiths and axial aphorisms from leading
Sufi masters of the past. Although brief, the manual is
full of profound and moving wisdom that every Muslim
should be characterised by.
~ Available from HERITAGE PRESS af;

Guardian of the Cloak
Loving and praising the

Prophet Muhammad #% is
an essential cornerstone of
GUARDIAN every believer's faith. This
of the CLOAK core facet of the faith has
tool boat apa manifested itself in the form
of beautiful poetic eulogy
from his own time until
today. For centuries, the Qa-
sidah al-burdah [The ode of
Be ir atic dorsi the cloak] of al-Busiri (d. ca.
al-Nagshabandi al-Baghdadi 696 AH) has been arguably
the most popular eulogising
fic a ode of this kind. As such,
it has been passed down
ever since by successive and
countless Muslim commu-
nities, by both layperson and scholar alike. Recent history,
however, has witnessed grave accusations emerge against
the poem, with claims that some its lines contain polytheism
(shirk) and disbelief (kufr). This treatise, Guardian of the Cloak,
is a thorough and scholarly response to such charges.
The author of this work was Shaykh Dawid ibn Sulayman
al-Baghdadi al-Naqshabandi al-Khalidi al-Shafi' (1815-1882).
He was originally from Baghdad, but travelled extensively
throughout the Muslim world, including Hejaz, Syro-Palestine
and Egypt. He authored numerous works, in addition to
this treatise, including a defence of the four Sunni schools of
Islamic law, and a refutation of the Wahhabis.
WAWANEy heritagepress. co.uk

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The Refinement of Souls is a translation of Imam Ibn
‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandarf's Taj al-‘arfis al-hawi li-tahdhib
al-nufiis. It is a concise manual consisting of spiritual
instructions, aphorisms and private discourses with
the Divine from a Sufi master of the Shadhilf order. The
author has included numerous references to the
Qur’an and Sunnah, as well as illuminating anecdotes
and similitudes, in the course of explaining religious
themes such as repentance, the effects of sins, the
nature of the struggle against the lower self, envy,
reliance on divine planning, and many others. The
work concentrates on the practical steps and the
essential states of being for a novice to realise, and as
such, serves as a beneficial guide for both Sufis and
non-Sufis, both beginners and more advanced
students.
~
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accomplished scholar of Islamic law, which he taught
at the al-Azhar mosque and other places. His greatest
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Imam Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari

Imam Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari

Published by: Heritage Press

Copyright © Amjad Mahmood, March 2019 CE/ Rajab 1440 AH

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

Author: Imam Tj al-Din Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Sakandari

A catalogue record of this book is available from the Bnitish Library.

Typeset by: N A Qaddoura

TRANSLITERATION KEY VIII

THE REFINEMENT OF SOULS ]

The blessing of the gaze from a friend of Allah (wali) 20

O slave, flee from this creation to the Creator 68

r *(A distinctive glottal stop tongue against the upper

\. d (An emphatic d-like sound Ww, u,

made by pressing the entire CE Jit,t

[;the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Compassionate.

the spiritual path, written by a master who himself was realised

@ Maktabah Ibn al-Qayyim, Damascus, Syria, 1419/1999.

The subject headings found throughout are not from the

e is Imam T4j al-Din, Abi al-Fadl and Abii al-‘Abbas,

1. The following biographical details have been largely, although not

Before meeting his spiritual mentor Shaykh Abu al-‘Abbas

3. Muhammad ibn ‘Abbad, Sharh al-Hikam al-Ala’tyyah \st edition.

is distinguished by his maturity and proficiency in Islamic law

His school of thought

He studied under the foremost scholars of his time, amongst

@ Shaykh Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Abraguhi, the Musnid

His most prominent students and disciples

Many renowned scholars benefited from him, amongst them

Shafi jurists]), who was the most prominent of his

His acclaimed works

The Imam wrote many works, predominantly on Sufism; some

Kamal ibn al-Humam* visited his grave 4 and began reciting

will be wretched and some will be felicitous’ [Qur’an 11:105],

What scholars have said about him

5. al-Munawi, al-Kawakib al-durriyyah (Beirut: Dar al-Sadir, 1420/1999),

Al-Munawi said about him, ‘An Imam, the crown of his

8. al-Munawi, al-Kawakib al-durriyyah, 3:8-9.

his followers grew in number. He was endowed with clear signs

ll praise is due for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and

1. ‘Shariah isthe [Divine] command for creation to adhere to servitude [to

O slave, petition Allah to enable you to repent at all times, be-

Emulation of him 3 is of two types: apparent and subtle. The

described in the following words, ‘Salman is from us, the People

Where will you find goodness?

water skin. This is someone who is truly deprived and to whom

Repentance gains Allah’s love %

Outer and inner effects of acts of disobedience

Know that disobedience consists of breaching the covenant

7. This is a figure of speech for the disappearance of the splendour of light

such as the succession of doubts, forgetting the final destination

The struggle against the lower self

Qur’an; the fruit of the tongue is the remembrance fof Allah];

10. In other words, instead of deterring it, he begins to assist and

of wisdom, because in it there is a fragrant breeze (nafhah) from

Warning against disobedience to Allah

Know that you are to be careful of disobedience, for it may cause

Envy is sheer ignorance